


Stranded

by Liola



Category: Naruto, One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Blood and Gore, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Gen, Other, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-02-21
Packaged: 2021-03-15 13:22:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 35,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28814094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liola/pseuds/Liola
Summary: Konan's most recent 'bug extermination' has led the Akatsuki to discover a long lost transportation seal. These types of seals have long since fallen out of favor due to the risks involved. Thus, Ame now has a ticking time bomb in its backyard. Pein must thus make a decision. To take the risk, evacuate and destroy it blindly, or to send someone into the unknown...
Comments: 13
Kudos: 44





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The One Piece franchise belongs to Eiichiro Oda, the Naruto franchise to Masashi Kishimoto. I respect both immensely and would never claim to own any part of their works. This is merely a tribute to their masterpieces, and I do not and do not plan to make any money from it.
> 
> Please note:
> 
> 1) the above disclaimer applies to the whole story and shall thus not be repeated! Thou hath been warned once and once only!
> 
> 2) I'm fucking incapable of keeping to a schedule, so even if I seem dead for like… a year, unless the synopsis/story status says otherwise, I am still working on the story and an update will come eventually.
> 
> 3) You'll need at least some background knowledge of the Naruto franchise to understand what'll be going on. Sorry about that!
> 
> 4) I look forward to any thoughts you wish to share and hope you enjoy my brainchild! Enjoy!

"You're planning to take a big risk, eh? _Leader-sama_?" A sarcastic voice brought Pein out of his contemplation.

"Madara," he acknowledged.

"We have talked about this. It is necessary. The cave is basically in our backyard. While we could just blow it up and forget about it, we have no idea where the transport seals in there lead or how they'd react to that course of action. It could blow up directly or we could potentially open a direct connection to an active volcano and destroy the whole village for all we know… If the mission fails, then we'll have to risk it one way or another. The worst that'll happen is us having to recruit a few new members. There are plenty of qualified ones to choose from out there. Who knows? Those four may even find something useful wherever they'll end up."

The other growled lowly but had to concede the point. This was why he hated the sealing arts. Such a bother.

Then again, exploration and scouting missions were a ninja's daily bread. If they failed such a simple mission, then they would've been useless to him anyway.

"Fine. But if they don't come back in time, we'll just break it and be done with it. Simply evacuate the village if you're that worried."

Pein simply nodded in agreement.

"If you are concerned about the empty spaces that'll open up if they do fail, you could go out to recruit already, while I'll brief them. If they succeed then well, a few extra hands won't hurt either way."

A thoughtful hum answered his suggestion.

"I shall take Zetsu with me then. Some of the ones I have my eyes on can be a pain to track down without him."

"Very well… in that case, would you ask him to send those four to my office?"

That way he wouldn't have to seek them out individually. He would've preferred to send Zetsu himself on this mission, but no matter how small the chance of failure, a scout and informant as skilled as them was truly too hard to find.

"Of course, _Leader-sama_."

Pein huffed. How he hated that man… But alas, there was no way they could pull off the plan without him.

'Madara' used the power of his Sharingan to directly teleport to Zetsu's garden. The man always liked to spend time here and usually kept at least 1 clone present, in case the rest of the Akatsuki needed to contact him.

"Zetsu", he addressed the empty air, "We have something to do."

The ground moved slightly, parting to allow the plant-man to emerge. It seemed he was in luck. It was the original.

"Oh?"

"Pein plans to send 2 teams on an exploration mission they may not return from. So, we'll go recruiting."

"…"

"Don't look at me, his reasons are valid… though it's a pain."

Thus, after Zetsu instructed four of his clones to alert the lucky ninjas to their mission, the two set off. The first stop, the Bloody Mist.

Sasori was content. He had recently found some interesting plants he hadn't studied before. They seemed to secret a strong poison when exposed to heat of around 25~37°C. He was currently testing it against his current poisons and experimenting with improvements. It seemed to lose its effectiveness if cooled down enough, which just would not do…

He made sure the safety goggles and the lab coat were still covering his less easily repaired body parts properly before starting the next experiment.

Carefully, Sasori lifted the beaker with the poison sample in it, ready to drip a few drops into the test tube in front of him.

*Knock knock*

Sasori's hand stilled just before the poison could leave its container and sat the beaker back onto the table with a sigh.

With well-practiced movements, he turned his equipment off and safely closed all the containers with the more volatile ingredients before opening the door to his lab.

In front of him stood a White Zetsu clone.

"Yes?", his voice definitely did not contain a twinge of annoyance.

"Pein-sama wants you in his office. There's a mission."

Sasori merely nodded.

"Orochimaru?"

The Zetsu clone shook it's head. "He won't be necessary for this mission. You will be working with others. He will give you the details."

Sasori internally raised his brow. More than 1 other team member, huh… This may be interesting.

"When?", he simply asked instead of questioning the clone further.

"As soon as I find the others.", which obviously meant 'right now'. Marvelous.

Sasori closed the door in the clone's face and quickly discarded his lab gear in exchange for the uniform. Not even 2 minutes had passed since his experiment was interrupted when the man securely locked his rooms and leisurely walked towards Pein's office, ready to be briefed. He was already contemplating which masterpiece he would showcase first, should it come to battle. All his were such beauties after all, so decisions were hard.

Deidara hummed happily to himself as he played around with his clay. He was experimenting with some new animal type bombs. He was making some progress, but the strength of the resulting explosion still left much to be desired.

He frowned thoughtfully at the surrounding area. Only some smaller boulders and debris were left in the area around him. Any plants and even dirt had long been annihilated by his experiments over the years. He decided he'd have to switch practice grounds soon.

"Un, there's almost no targets left", he grumbled to himself.

He finished the last few touch-ups on the small owl in his hands before releasing it at the closest boulder.

*Ka-booom*

The explosion resulting from the owl reaching its target resulted in a small shockwave that shook Deidara's hair and clothes.

He grinned in triumph.

"Art", he confirmed to himself, "is an explosion, un!"

The boulder was gone.

"What is it, Zetsu?"

He had noticed the clone appearing just as he had released his precious little owl but had chosen to ignore them temporarily in favour of watching his latest creation. It had been beautiful.

"There's a mission. Pein-sama wants you in his office for the briefing."

"Keh, got it."

Deidara surveyed the area one last time. He'd have to come back for those last few boulders another time then.

Kisame's eyes were closed in a state of meditation. He was quietly enjoying the sensation of weightlessness around him.

God, it had been way too long since he'd had a chance to do this.

Too busy with missions and too distrustful of his teammate to dare. Yet, over the years he'd been working with Itachi, he had earned both his respect and trust. He found himself liking the young man and even worrying for him, on the occasions his sickness flared up particularly harshly. Not that Itachi knew that he had noticed, he'd been careful about that. After all, the younger man still did not truly trust him yet. If he had an inkling Kisame even suspected about that kind of weakness, there was no way he would ever relax around him again.

Kisame did not want that. At first, the teen had merely been a mission… yet now… now Kisame wanted to truly be his teammate.

His current actions were his way of showing the man that. Kisame had not hesitated when he had offered to guard him from the branches of a tree that grew on the lake's edge.

It had been way too long since he had truly listened to the water like this. He could feel how all the little knots and tense muscles in his body relaxing as he floated at the bottom of the small lake hidden behind their base.

The plants seemed to whisper to him as they gently caressed his back, joyfully welcoming him, telling him of the current, reassuring him there was no danger.

He knew without a doubt he could trust that voice.

His clan was known as the Children of the Sea for a reason. The water was their ally. It never lied and always helped.

That was also why any Hoshigaki without an exception had a high water affinity. Sometimes other affinities would appear, but water was always a certainty.

Even if all else abandoned him or betrayed him, he would always be able to rely on the water.

His strong bond to the water was, he suspected, also why his blade Samehada had truly accepted him as a wielder. Another ally who would never betray him.

His communication with the lake was interrupted when the distinct feeling of his partner's chakra landed on the water surface.

Kisame lightly stretched one last time in the comfort of the water before rising to the surface with a single beat of his powerful legs.

The lakebed stayed undisturbed throughout his whole stay.

Itachi wordlessly handed his partner's clothing back to the taller man.

"We have a mission"

Without another word, the two vanished, leaving the area silent once more.

Deidara was the last to arrive to the briefing. Nobody minded. After all, this wasn't a scheduled meeting. They all nodded to each other, wordlessly turning their attention to their leader.

At the man's nod the atmosphere tensed, the newly established team of four awaiting the details of the mission that required four of them.

"Your number was decided because of the unknown difficulty of the mission.", Pein started to explain.

"Konan's latest… bug extermination just outside the village has lead to the discovery of a particular cave with transportation seals of some kind engraved within. I do not have to tell you what could happen if we carelessly try to destroy the cave. Risking Amegakure is not an option, the cover it offers is too valuable. Sending one of Zetsu's clones inside has led to him losing contact with it immediately. Even if his clones die, Zetsu would know, yet there was simply nothing at all."

The atmosphere grew even more serious as they let the implications of those words sink in.

"The seal would not activate at all if the place it leads to didn't exist anymore. You are to explore the area around the seal and make sure that even if the seal's destruction forces a permanent opening between wherever you end up and here, the village won't be in danger. Prepare accordingly"

'Exploration. Danger assessment. Possible hostilities immediately upon arrival', Itachi summarized in his mind, simultaneously creating a list of necessary and desirable supplies to include in his pack.

"I'm expecting word back in a week at the latest. If I do not hear anything, I'll assume the worst and evacuate the area before having the cave destroyed. I'd hate the attention that kind of action would bring, but I cannot leave a ticking time bomb like this in our backyard. Itachi will assume command in this mission. That is all. Konan will show you to the cave once you're ready to depart."

""Yes""

"One more thing, It's best to go incognito. No uniforms.", he let his gaze wander over the whole group, "No rings. Leave them in your quarters. In fact, a disguise should be considered."

The group acknowledged Pein's orders with a nod.

"Dismissed."

The newly established team left without another word. Their leader's decisions were absolute so there wasn't really anything else that could be said.

Itachi lead them to one of the few unused rooms to discuss their strategy.

The members quietly stared at each other for a while before Itachi broke the silence.

"Pack for the eventuality we get stuck on the other side. Survival and combat without possibility to resupply.", he addressed them all. They had all known to do so but it was best to make sure regardless.

"Everything in seals. Ready for combat upon exit. Money and valuables.", just in case wherever they ended up did not use Ryo as a currency. As far as he knew some islands in the north only traded for gold, as an example.

He then turned to them each individually, deciding on who was to focus on what in particular. It went without saying that everyone would bring their own weapons but... "extra wire, kunai, shuriken, senbon… water", for Kisame's jutsu in case they landed in a desert or something…

He turned to Sasori "Shielding upon exit for the whole team, any tools and supplies you need for crafting, antidotes, medicine"

His gaze changed to Deidara. "Fabrics, sandals, sewing supplies"

"I will pack extra food and cooking supplies and some mapping and navigation tools, just in case."

He had already spoken more than enough. He waited if anyone had anything else to add, but, really, they were ninja. It should be possible to procure anything else from nature or by improvising. The only thing potentially not buyable should be their ninja-only supplies and those, Sasori had long since learned to forge himself. He wasn't a master smith by any means but basic supplies weren't an issue.

"Hn, one hour, Konan's office."

With that, he used his signature Crow Shunshin to make a quick exit. It was time to get ready.


	2. Chapter 2

Itachi surveyed the scrolls rolled out in front of him one more time. He had a very weird feeling about this mission, which made him cautious.

'I may have overdone it', he silently admitted to himself, while sealing yet another full set of weapons into the scroll already containing a few dozen. He had even sealed his old tantos, which he rarely tended to use anymore… It brought too many bad memories to do so.

Yet, despite that, despite the fact he had nearly emptied his room completely, save for his ring and Akatsuki uniforms, he still felt as if he wasn't prepared…

'Maybe I should buy some more food? There's still some time…'

The ninja sealed all the scrolls he prepared into a slightly larger one, specially prepared to hold other storage scrolls, and stashed it in one of the scroll pouches on his belt. He was currently dressed in his old ANBU uniform, consisting of a mesh undershirt, a sleeveless black top embroidered with some standard seals covered by an arrow-proof grey vest, long fingerless gloves, arm and shin guards, and dark grey utility pants. Thankfully, his usual sandals could be worn.

Luckily, he had kept a few sets of those, or he'd need to go last-minute clothes shopping.

Apart from the Akatsuki uniform, these were the only clothes he owned, even if wearing them once more made him feel uncomfortable. He did not deserve to wear those clothes anymore, after what he had been forced to do. He swore to himself that he'd get some better gear after this mission, for if he ever had to travel out of uniform again. Plus, he was still growing. Soon, the uniform wouldn't fit anymore either way.

Thus, Itachi got some mission funds from Pein and went shopping. He definitely needed to get more Pocky, that's for sure. He did not think his temper would survive if he ran out during this mission. The thought of Sasori's and Deidara's bickering alone was enough to give him a migraine.

He returned 2 minutes early and checked over all his gear one last time. He was as ready as he was gonna get. The unsettling feeling in his gut had also lightened somewhat. At exactly the appointed time, he and his three teammates arrived at Konan's office.

'It seems', Itachi thought to himself in amusement, 'I am not the only one who had no choice but to don their old uniform. Or the only one uncomfortable with this arrangement.'

Kisame donned his old swordsman uniform, including chest and waist guards. He looked like a mix between a samurai and a ninja. He could even see a long Katana strapped to his back alongside his usual blade, Samehada. He wondered if the sentient blade ever got jealous…

Deidara was wearing an outfit similar to his own. Huh. He had never known the blonde had been an ANBU.

Sasori in contrast wore a dark grey sweater below a white high collared vested coat that reached to just above his ankles. He had most likely stolen them from one of his puppets and readjusted them in a hurry, not having anything else to wear.

Before this, he could've never imagined the redhead wearing white.

Itachi tilted his head in question. Knowing what he wanted, they began to check their equipment out loud one last time. No matter how experienced they were, the basics were important, especially gear checks.

Itachi nodded in approval. He himself dutifully listed his own inventory. He waited for a moment for any remarks or questions. When none came, he turned to Sasori.

"Do you have any cloaks to spare to cover our armour?" There was no need to alert any presence on the other side to their combat readiness. His original plan of using Genjutsu did the job, but why waste chakra if he didn't need to?

Sasori stared at him for a second before grudgingly nodding. None of the dark red hooded cloaks they were handed fit quite right, but they would do for the purpose they needed them for.

He nodded in thanks.

"If we can't return them unharmed, we'll replace them."

They were Sasori's private property after all.

Without further ado, Itachi knocked on Konan's door. It was time to depart.

Konan had the team meet her just outside the village so they could travel faster - Shunshin was a lifehack, seriously.

Without their forehead protectors and with the hood down they looked like a normal group of travelers. The only slightly suspicious part was their lack of luggage.

The cave in question was only a few minutes away from the gates, at ninja speed that was.

Having shown them to their destination, Konan wordlessly left.

"First, check for the seals. Make sure all are intact before we set foot in the activation area", Itachi commanded.

"If you gain any insights as to what would happen upon the seals' destruction, report."

The team nodded and got to work.

While they could simply head straight in and trust the information they were given, they wouldn't have survived as long as they had if they did something stupid like that, especially not as wanted fugitives with a tremendous bounty on their head.

No mission ever ended without a hitch or 10 if you are a missing-nin.

In fact, this whole mission screamed 'trap' to them.

They just had no choice but to trip it, one way or the other. Pein was in charge, so what he ordered was what they'd have to do.

They just weren't sure if Pein was the one who had prepared the trap or if it was an outsider.

Honestly, his team members being who they were, he wouldn't be surprised if Pein took this chance to get rid of them. They'd have to discuss this later when they were certain no Zetsu clones were around to report their conversations.

Itachi slowly shifted a few rocks to the side, careful not to accidentally smudge any seals.

The seals looked ancient in design. After examining them for a few minutes, Itachi was certain they hadn't been applied within the last 50 years from the state the area was in. He wasn't an expert in the history of the sealing arts so he couldn't say what era the style in front of him came from. He did, however, know enough to recognize something archaic when he saw it.

The small individual seals definitely made up a larger transportation seal. What's more, simply stepping into the seal's center was enough to activate it. That means it took Nature Chakra from the surroundings to activate itself.

Nature Chakra was a well-known taboo for seal masters. The last known seal master who had dared to experiment with it had blown himself and half a mountain to high hell.

'No choice then', Itachi sighed to himself as he straightened up and motioned for the others to gather.

"Anything?"

"Un, some of the seals are worn but not so much they would lose functionality. From what I can tell it's a long-distance transport seal. Whoever made it used Nature Chakra to fuel it, the crazy bastard.", Deidara cursed. Long-distance, was it…

"I agree. I also found the failsafe that'll destroy the center if the seals at the destination are harmed.", Sasori added emotionlessly. They indeed wouldn't be ripped apart upon arrival then. That was something at least.

Kisame shook his head. He had nothing else to add. Neither did he.

"Let's go."

The ninjas spread out along the edge of the seal. They each readied themselves in their own way. Sasori took out an unrolled one of his scrolls in preparation. He'd deploy the puppet within to shield them immediately upon arrival. Upon Itachi's signal, they entered at the same time. With a flash of green light, the cave was empty.

The missing-nin were standing back to back in a defensive formation before the flash of teleportation even disappeared, protectively covered by a shield that could be mistaken for half of a turtle's shell, securely held in place by Sasori's Chakra strings.

A good thing too, as the first thing that greeted them on the other side was an incredibly loud continuous roar, followed immediately by the quake of something striking their shield heavily. At this rate, it would not hold out long.

Itachi blinked.

This situation, could it possibly be…?

He shifted slightly upon the wet ground, signing his plan to the others instead of trying to shout over the deafening noise of their surroundings. This would be the first test to see how well they could work together.

Deidara and Kisame locked eyes and nodded.

Itachi stood slightly behind Sasori before counting down with his fingers.

3…

Deidara and Kisame jumped up and stuck themselves to the underside of their Turtle shield

2…

Deidara started forming some of his clay into oval shapes, while Kisame decisively smashed a hole through the least reinforced part of their shield. Water sprayed inside through the hole. Itachi's suspicion had been right, as ridiculous as this situation was. Their plan was a go.

1…

Kisame started his hand-seals for one of his lesser-used jutsu while Sasori tensed. Itachi fully stepped behind Sasori, waiting for the right moment.

0!

Sasori forcibly flipped the shield on its side, his strings straining or snapping in the process. Itachi grabbed the slightly smaller man around the middle and jumped, landing securely at the bottom of the rounded structure, just as Deidara leaped up and on top of the shield's edge.

Sasori separated from Itachi and used his chakra to secure himself to his creation.

He released his creations before quickly rolling back inside the half-safety of their shell, slightly regretful he would not get to see the beauties do their work.

*Ka-BOOOoom*

The explosion went off just before Kisame completed his last hand-seal.

The shell rocked as the newly disrupted water pushed against their shield before Kisame's justu showed its effect.

The shell shook before being shot upwards by great force.

Itachi stabilized himself with difficulty. He closed his eyes in concentration. Timing was the most important for this last part.

Now!

Itachi's eyes snapped open, he bit his thumb and went through familiar hand seals before slamming his palm against the wood below his feet.

With a small plume of smoke, an oversized raven appeared below the group of ninjas.

Without hesitation, they abandoned their battered ride and jumped upon the confused raven's back.

The summon got the gist of the situation soon enough and hastily flapped its wings to resist the air currents trying to take them closer to the dangerously roaring waves around them. After struggling for some time, it eventually carried the group safely out of the roaring depths of the gigantic whirlpool they had landed at the bottom of.

They could only wipe away some cold sweat as they watched their shield get torn apart by the current just seconds after they had vacated it.

That… could have been them. Even Kisame may not have survived that, judging from the broken planks and barrels rushing along the currents, he may well have been skewered regardless of his abilities underwater.

'Safe to step through your hairy fucking ass', Deidara cursed inwardly.

Itachi gently stroked the ruffled plumes of their feathered saviour. "Thank you, Kuromu. Could you take us higher? We need to survey the area."

"Kreeee! I know I said I love surprises, little bird, but how did you end up in this mess?"

Kuromu replied as he gently turned and switched to a new air current leading upwards. The air in this place felt less suffused with nature chakra than any place he'd ever heard of.

"Hn. Unknown transportation seal."

Kuromu tilted his head in understanding.

When no further questions were forthcoming, Itachi fully concentrated on their surroundings. He fed some chakra to his eyes, enough to enhance his vision, without resorting to the Mangekyo.

They were now around 500 m above the whirlpool. Yet, its roaring was still close to deafening. He'd had to lean pretty close to Kuromu's head and shout to be heard. That's how massive the thing was.

Itachi let his eyes wander over the surrounding ocean, searching for a place to land on so they could gather themselves.

The ocean… the closest coast to Amegakure took days to reach, even at ninja speeds. And from what he was seeing right now, they weren't anywhere close to the coast… or any land for that matter.

There wasn't even as much as a small island as far as his Sharingan-enhanced eyes could see.

That may prove… problematic.

Itachi executed the summoning jutsu one more time, slightly differently this time. As he tapped his hand against Kuromu's back for the last step, his eyes narrowed in concentration. In yet another small cloud of smoke, a flock of crows burst forth, gently circling the team once before landing, awaiting instructions.

These crows weren't from the summoning clan but were normal crows he had trained personally. His nin-animals, so to speak.

He had summoned them for two reasons.

1 – To send them out to find the closest landmass; and

2 – To confirm what he had noticed earlier when summoning Kuromu.

When one summoned something, the amount of chakra the summoner had to expend was linked to their physical distance to the object they summoned. Since nin-animals and members of the summon Clans inevitably moved around, the amount you had to spend was never quite the same. The result was, the chakra that wasn't needed for the technique would disperse in a cloud of smoke.

Itachi had noticed that overall, regardless of where he tried summoning his companions in the Elemental Nations, the difference in Chakra spent was no more than 5,21%.

Yet, to summon Kuromu he had had to spend significantly more than that. He hadn't been quite focused on just how much more, what with the circumstances, but his flock of trained crows hat taken around 386% of the usual amount needed.

While that wasn't truly a problem normally, he would have to consider the use of the more chakra intensive summons very carefully in battle from now on until they headed back.

He turned back to his uncharacteristically quiet companions, more specifically, Sasori.

The puppeteer felt a sense of foreboding at Itachi's probing gaze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sasori knows what's up lol.
> 
> Let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

"I feel the need to point out", Sasori said drily, "I do not possess an endless amount of failed creations that can be abused like this."

While he didn't truly mind providing the team's cloaks or even the destruction of the clunky shell earlier, it would be problematic if the team expected him to abuse actual puppets like this. His art was sacred, after all. Tossing away 'sketches' he didn't like was fine, but…

"Hn"

Itachi acknowledged he may be asking a little much of the man, but what with the circumstances there hadn't been a lot of choices, unfortunately. He did feel a bit bad though and vowed to do something nice for the other, maybe bring back some of the more exotic toxic plants he knew of for his experiments…

"Un, you saved us a lot of trouble this time… old man.", Deidara smirked at his rival in art and leisurely leaned back against the sturdy walls of their makeshift boat.

"Good thing you brought them along at all.", Kisame added, half-questioningly.

"Emergency part salvaging", Sasori explained. From how much he had been talking he seemed to be in a good mood today. There were days when he wouldn't bother to speak at all.

Then again, it could be because Deidara was there. He couldn't defend his art if he didn't speak after all.

The bomber was surprisingly unconfrontational today though. In fact, they all didn't really act like they usually would ever since the mission briefing.

It seemed like Itachi wasn't the only one who smelled something fishy from this whole scenario. Deidara and himself had been forced to join the organization, meaning they didn't hold much loyalty to the place... if any.

Sasori wasn't loyal to anyone or anything and preferred to develop his masterpieces quietly. He had only joined cause he rightfully assumed, attacks on his person would largely cease, outside of missions. This enabled him to perform more risky experiments with some peace of mind.

Kisame… Kisame had been and most likely still was one of the most loyal to the Akatsuki. However, his increased closeness and camaraderie with Itachi, who most definitely was not, had called his loyalty into question.

Itachi suppressed his guilt at that thought.

In contrast to their rag-tag group, there was Zetsu, who unquestioningly did anything he was told by Madara, and by extension Pein, and even spied on and reported on his fellow members.

another who was loyal as long as he was paid, one who was happy as long as he could sacrifice some poor sods to his god, Konan who was in love with Pein and wouldn't betray him, and Sasori's partner Orochimaru who would stay loyal as long as he got enough interesting subjects to experiment on.

Then of course there were Pein and Madara themselves, or Tobi, as the other Uchiha called himself.

Needless to say, as long as their goals aligned, they would keep working together as they currently were.

All this could, of course be a coincidence. Itachi would keep the possibility at the back of his mind though.

"My crows have yet to spot any land", he drily informed his teammates. "No ships or anything either. We will just have to make do with this as a base and rotate duties."

"Kisame is our best bet to investigate closer to the whirlpool, so that's what you'll focus on. Breaks as your body needs them. Rest fully at night. No risks."

"Got it."

"I'll take night watch every night. My vision is best in the dark. In daylight hours Sasori and Deidara rotate hourly between scouting the outer perimeter underwater for clues to what happened here while I sleep. I'm well awake a few days and weeks without sleep aren't usually a problem for any of us. But this environment is unknown. It is best to be at full strength while we aren't sure of the situation. After 6 hours, I'll join the rotation as well. Underwater, Kisame takes charge."

He stared at them sternly. Ninjas, himself included, tended to overdo it a lot as a coping mechanism for some of the things that they had been through. Thus, he chose to remind everyone.

"Then, let's start. Deidara, 30 minutes, 1-hour break. After 30 minutes Sasori, 1 hour. I'll go 1 hour right now. Anything to add?"

"Yea. Just a warning.", Kisame decided to speak up.

"You know how the water lets me know things sometimes?"

"Hn." "Un" "I recall."

"Well, from what I understand, some kind of danger is nearby, underwater. It doesn't seem to be moving currently, but for the water to warn me about it, it's probably not something minor, even for us. So be careful, don't dive places you can't see in."

In fact, Kisame himself was bewildered. The water had never spoken to him when he wasn't inside of it, diving. It had always heeded his call, yes. But it never acted like it was acting now. Almost overeager, like a puppy.

The change was startling.

He would have to explore the phenomenon. He needed to know what was happening lest whatever it was endangered the mission. It was a risk to dive regardless, but that's why 3 of them would go in together.

If something happened, they could team up against the threat.

"Hn, if there's nothing else…?"

There wasn't anything.

Thus, the three divers started stripping. Their current attire could for the most part survive the seawater but getting the crusted salt out would be a pain later. It was better not to go through the hassle.

They also left their more water-sensitive items behind. In the end, Itachi stood only in underpants, pouches with water-friendly weapons strapped to his bare skin.

That'd leave some painful rashes if he had to do it regularly. Thankfully, the mission duration wasn't that long.

The other two were in similar states, stretching in preparation.

Itachi unsealed his rebreather, a handy breathing device capable of making one breathe underwater, among other things. For some reason, only Amegakure and Kisame's home village seemed to utilize it on a regular basis though. A stainless-steel combat knife and a waterproof tanto soon joined his collection. He rarely used the knife for actual combat. It was mainly for hunting and emergency repairs… but it should do for this situation where his normal kunai would slowly lose their sharpness.

Thus, having readied everything, Itachi loosened his muscles and stretched himself properly.

Once done, he strapped the knife to his left arm. It would have to do, despite feeling clunky and foreign. He needed his hands free just in case. The tanto was strapped to his lower back, within easy reach of his right.

Finally, he took the rebreather and turned to the others.

Kisame was already waiting for them. The lucky bastard only really had to bring weapons, if that. Itachi especially envied the blue-skinned man's gills at this moment. The rebreathers were awesome, don't get him wrong… they just left an awful taste in his mouth.

When Deidara signaled his readiness, Itachi put in the breathing device and gave the go-ahead.

They dove into the ocean without further ado.

Itachi took a few seconds to adjust his eyes to the world underwater before activating his Sharingan. He could see the ocean floor clearly, though he could tell it was quite dark, a little darker than twilight. The approximated depth was somewhere close to 700m.

He did not envy Deidara at the moment. While the blonde had good eyes, the strain would be pretty obvious in these conditions. Using Jutsu wasn't a permanent solution either, it strained the eyes even more and bringing a light would just alert anything underwater to their presence for miles. Perhaps Sasori could waterproof some night vision goggles to make things easier for them. He recalled that Deidara had gotten his hands on some newly made ones from the land of snow recently. If he had brought them along, that is.

Lead by Kisame, the group slowly dove their way down, taking a few minutes to make sure their bodies got used to the pressure. The water was warm the first few meters but cooled down quickly the further they dove. Around halfway they had to start circulating their chakra to keep going safely. Luckily, this action only consumed a minimal amount of their energy reserves or they'd have to work more breaks into their rotation.

The seabed was largely covered in sand with the occasional rocks and boulders surrounded by corrals and the scarce water plant.

Such large stretches of pure sand were quite rare outside of sand beds or coastal areas.

Kisame visually scanned the area, then closed his eyes to communicate with the sea. When he opened them once again he lead them closer to one of the cliff-like boulders, signing to explore this area first.

They signed their OKs. This was going to be a long, wet, salty week.

They didn't find anything on the first day but some weird water plants and fish they had never seen before. Some of them were safe for consumption, according to Kisame. Thus, Itachi as the best cook among them promptly prepared them. It was never wrong to save resources after all. Contrarily to their weird appearance, they tasted great.

Sasori had started cataloging everything, in the hope of discovering something useful for his craft. Except for some small seaweed that enhanced the potency of some poisons, he had not yet been successful by the 4th day.

Thankfully, the danger the sea had warned Kisame about never approached or seemed to move at all for that matter.

On the 5th day though, Kisame had the divers return, expression grim.

"We may be in trouble", he started to say after they had all dried off a little.

"I found a part of a transportation seal today. Judging from the remnants of nature chakra that thing exuded when I touched it, as well as the style of seals, I'm quite certain it's made by the same guy who made the thing that brought us here."

Why exactly was that a bad thing?

Seeing the questioning expressions on their faces, Kisame sighed before continuing.

"It was destroyed. Blown apart, really, judging by the state of the pieces."

Itachi's heart sunk.

He didn't like the implications of that, not at all.

"The even worse news is", and Kisame's headache was near-visible at this point, "that I managed to roughly guess the origin of the shard I found. It wasn't too hard to find some other pieces after that to corroborate… To make things short, it's the whirlpool."

Silence.

Itachi closed his eyes, silently contemplating the possibilities. For them, the worst-case scenario which sadly seemed more and more likely was that the part of the seal that led to the Elemental Nations was destroyed. Its destruction was the most likely cause of that whirlpool.

The thing hadn't moved at all since the ninjas had arrived, only steadily spinning in place, so chances were it was stationary. The volatile nature chakra the transportation seal made use of was a logical explanation for the phenomenon. Most likely, there used to be an island here that was completely destroyed by the seal's explosion and/or the resulting whirlpool.

That same whirlpool had most likely preserved the arrival seal all these years at its center, ironically enough. Any arrival would soon be besieged and more likely than not shredded to pieces by the vicious forces of the sea around them.

When Itachi opened them again his eyes were serious. He regarded his grim-looking companions, silently staring at nothing as they thought.

"Assumptions aren't helping.", he finally broke the silence. It wouldn't do for them to take them as truth. No, they would have to make sure first.

"Everyone rest up and prepare. We check the bottom of the whirlpool tomorrow. Plans will be set in the morning. Whatever we do, it will likely create quite a large disturbance in the area, so chances are, if the danger Kisame was warned about is able to move, that's when it'll approach. I want multiple escape strategies in place in case we can't handle it."

"Kisame, try getting as close to the thing as you can safely get. See if you can come up with a less brute force method to let us investigate."

The blue-skinned ninja grinned and nodded his acquiescence and thanks.

Truthfully, he had been feeling more alive and at home these past few days than he could ever remember. He felt energized and barely wanted to leave the water at all.

He would be better off if he spent more time in the sea, rather than frying under the burning sun on the surface. He had reached a whole new understanding of the sea and water in general during their exploration. The waters here reached out to 'talk' to him a lot, guiding his attention to interesting things and places. It had been quite distracting at the start, but they were all useful in some way… if he hadn't been searching for something specific, that was.

That's also why it had taken him so long to find clues for the mission. He was slowly getting some control over this newly intensified affinity he had though and thus found it a bit easier to 'ask' the playful element about things he actually needed at the time.

If he indulged its whims every now and then, it seemed more than happy to help him in turn. The eager puppy likeliness became more and more apparent the deeper Kisame's understanding of the sea went.

He loved it.

So, it was with little effort but with a few stopovers to admire an occasional plant or conch the sea was excited about that the ninja got closer and closer to the whirlpool. He was heavily relying on the water to let him know where approaching was safest.

Prompted by a small nudge, he turned slightly and promptly froze.

This… wasn't this…

His lips twitched.

'It's definitely an ostrich', Kisame thought, confused.

'But… it's a fish? Also, what's up with its size!?'

Right. When Kisame turned around he was met with the sight of a giant ostrich fish sleeping inside what, from the other side looked like a big misshapen rock, but from this side had at one point obviously been part of an equally gigantic ship. They had never gotten close enough to the whirlpool to scout this area, so it wasn't surprising they had never seen it before.

This was the unnamed danger, was it.

Despite its frankly quite funny appearance, he could see why it would be dangerous. It was a sea creature so it'd be able to move swiftly in this environment. From its size alone the ninjas wouldn't even qualify as a snack and he bet those claws and teeth were just as sharp as they looked.

He didn't doubt they could handle it though. Especially now that they wouldn't be surprised by the beast. Since it was still sleeping quite soundly and the water was bubbling around him happily, Kisame chose to continue his mission.

He had to find a way for them to either temporarily stop the whirlpool or get inside safely to investigate. If worse came to worst they'd have to at least destroy the arrival seal from this side so the transportation seal in Amegakure could be destroyed without danger. That was the only safe way to do so, as far as they knew, seeing as the failsafe they found in the cave before would render it inactive if the destination was destroyed.

Kisame was already mentally preparing for the possibility, as unwilling as he was to accept it.

They were ninja and some of the best of the best at that. They could be in denial all they wanted AFTER the mission, if at all. They first had to ensure that their home stayed safe. If that meant being stranded in the middle of the ocean without any chance for backup and destroying the only clue they currently had to return, then so be it.

If they couldn't deal, they'd have never become as successful as ninja as they had been.

'Though', Kisame thought drily, 'As a criminal who abandoned his original home village, I may sound like a hypocrite.'

Successful indeed.


	4. Chapter 4

Deidara was bored. He could hardly improve his artwork in this situation, sad as he was to admit such a fact, and there was nobody to talk to either.

Sasori had apparently decided that regardless of the steady rocking of their makeshift vessel, he would still indulge in his craft, if not the more detail-oriented aspects of it. Not that the redhead was a good conversationalist usually either. The only way to really get the introverted puppeteer to open up was insulting his art. And honestly, Deidara wasn't really in the mood to bicker.

Yes, while his own sense of art was the complete opposite of Sasori's, the only reason he really confronted him about it was to get the quiet as a grave ninja to talk. Seriously insulting someone else's sense of art really wasn't his style. He wasn't above converting them though.

'Un', he grinned to himself. 'Explosions are the best after all.'

In any case, Kisame was still doing his thing underwater and Itachi was sitting quietly and appeared to be meditating, or deep in thought. Deidara couldn't tell with the stoic teen. The teen who had beat him with unsettling and insulting ease at their first meeting. And didn't that still prick his pride every time he thought about it. Yet, he couldn't bring himself to resent the Uchiha for it anymore. Oh, he was still bitter about it, don't get him wrong and he was definitely still coming up with countermeasures for the young ninja's honestly scary Genjutsu skills. He just… couldn't bring himself to hate him anymore. The Uchiha was just too damn likeable for that, as he had gotten to know and grudgingly admit to himself during his time at the Akatsuki.

Otherwise he'd have grumbled a lot more during this mission.

'Mission', he thought sarcastically, 'More like a fucking death trap.'

Deidara was convinced this was some kind of farce to get rid of the 'disloyal' elements. As if he would leave before beating Itachi in a rematch. If one wasn't part of the organization then getting hold of the sneaky Uchiha was close to impossible, really.

"Che"

He felt kind of insulted their leadership thought it was this easy to get rid of them. Underestimating them like this was downright rude, in his opinion. Thus, Deidara swore to himself to find a way back, even if the seal was destroyed as the circumstances implied. If only to rub it in their face and flip them off, before calling it quits in their face.

Being lost in contemplation and boredom, Deidara instantly noticed when Itachi's eyes snapped open and the ninja turned his head.

He followed his team leader's gaze and smirked. Finally, something interesting.

It seemed like they were about to get company.

Dulacre Mihawk's mood was complicated when he woke up from his short nap. It always was on these yearly trips of his.

He didn't even really know why he was still doing this. There literally wasn't a point to this family tradition at all. Yet… for some reason he couldn't name he never managed to shake the habit.

Most likely… because habits like these were the only thing he had left of his family, of their heritage. Getting rid of even one felt almost like he himself was slowly killing the last vestiges that remained of them.

He doubted his trip this time would bear fruit either. It hadn't in all the years he had done it, not even in all the years his father and grandfather had done it before him. But the chance, however small it was, was worth it to their family.

Sighing, he grabbed a random shirt, got up, and left the small cabin of his vessel. He squinted as he stepped out, once more silently vowing to get a hat of some kind, and took a few seconds to let his eyes get used to the sun burning onto the small deck before he let his eyes roam over the seemingly endless expanse of sea before him.

He would never get tired of this view. The sea was a thing of beauty, equally as much as it was a thing to fear, hiding unknown wonders in its depths that equaled its terrors. It was exciting in a way he couldn't even hope to describe. He never wanted to lose this feeling.

If the winds didn't change overly much, he estimated that he would arrive in another 6 hours, give or take.

He blinked at a small black spot in the distance, flying close to the clouds.

A lone bird that wasn't a seagull… this far out over open waters?

"Huh"

Weird.

Well, not weird enough for him to look into.

He hauled the anchor back inside and readied the sails. With a last pull, he secured the ropes and got behind the wheel.

A small grin stretched across his face as the wind caught in the sails and his boat smoothly sailed towards his destination, not knowing he was already being expected.

The red eyes with 3 black tomoe of the crow gliding just below the scarce clouds glowed as it watched the traveler silently, awaiting instructions. It and its murdermates had spent the last 5 days scouting the area for any changes, circling the skies in wide arches.

Their feathers were growing slightly ragged due to the salty winds after all this time. Luckily, they could be repaired quite easily once their task was complete and they returned to their nests.

The crow cawed in acknowledgment of its new task, changing its course to keep in sight of the vessel below, which steadily made its way towards its master's location.

Mihawk narrowed his eyes in amusement at the crow trailing his boat at a distance. It seemed like it wasn't quite brave enough to approach or land but wasn't quite ready to take the risk. He was only around an hour away from his destination, so the bird's stamina was quite something. He estimated the whirlpool would be visible on the horizon any second now.

Regardless of the destruction it wrought, the gigantic whirlpool was always a majestic sight to see.

In anticipation, he fixed his eyes to the front.

Through the eyes of the crow, Itachi curiously observed the single traveler steadily sailing in their direction. It was a tall man, a few cm short of 2m. He seemed just a little older than Itachi himself, maybe 20 at most, had short black hair with some sideburns, straight bushy eyebrows, and the most intriguing black-rimmed yellow eyes. It almost looked like a target was painted inside.

Maybe a doujutsu?

The lines of his face were defined but not unhealthily so. He was muscular, built like a samurai, more for strength than for speed, but at the same time not overly so as to influence his flexibility. A strangely familiar cross peeked out from within his half-opened red shirt that was haphazardly stuffed into his light grey pants.

The boots he looked sturdy, most likely steel-toed. A well-used but also well cared for katana hung at his side.

Itachi's eyes snapped open and he turned towards the direction of the incoming boat on reflex. It wasn't visible yet, even to his eyes. So he turned his attention to his companions. He pulsed his chakra in a familiar pattern, one Kisame would feel and recognize as an order to return.

That cross though, just why did it seem so familiar…

The gilled ninja didn't take long to return, looking at Itachi in question and derailing his train of thought.

"Hn, small vessel, 1 person visible, eta 6 hours, 15 minutes."

That was around 10 pm, just before the sun would set. Likely it was just someone passing through, but they didn't know the situation, so it was best to prepare as if the passenger/s were hostile.

"Visible in approximately 5 hours. No sign of aggression currently, armed, training apparent, likely a samurai. No other weaponry apparent, there is a small cabin though, so there could be more people or weapons inside. Maximum capacity estimated at 4."

Short and to the point. Now it was time for instructions.

"Kisame, continue but return towards a distance where you can ambush them if they should prove hostile on my signal."

He nodded in acknowledgment.

"Sasori, how are your puppets?"

"Not as efficient underwater as I'd like… yet."

"Hn, then you are the point of contact if the vessel approaches us. If they prove non-hostile or you feel the need to, signal us to return or attack. Standard flares."

"Deidara and I shall join Kisame underwater, depending on what I observe in the next 4 hrs 30 minutes. In this environment my crows aren't as sneaky in scouting as I'd like but the single passenger has yet to show suspicion. We shall prepare for either situation."

"Now, Kisame, anything to report yet?"

"Aaah, I found the danger the water warned me of last time. There's some kind of sea creature sleeping close to the whirlpool. Kinda surprising our flashy escape didn't wake it, really. It… looks like a cross between an ostrich and an eel. That's the only way I can describe it. Threat level is unknown but since it's as big as the tower in Ame and has pretty sharp accessories I'd say at worst it's around an A-level threat. Nothing we can't handle even individually."

Even Sasori raised his brow at that. A giant ostrich fish. That was… intriguing. And relieving. They had honestly expected worse, given the bad luck they had on their mission until then.

"Another thing. I found some signs that there used to be buildings here, not many though and there's nothing yet that could tell me what kind or what purpose they served. Most likely, either the bigger pieces were destroyed or I wasn't looking at the right place yet. Let's assume for a moment the buildings housing the seals used to be some kind of travel point. It wouldn't be too strange for that to be a bit of a distance away from any kind of settlement. If we want to find further info, that would be our best bet though."

He did not voice that a search like that could take weeks, even for him.

"Hn, I see.", Itachi finally said after a moment of mulling the new information over, "just continue for now, maybe you'll get lucky."

Kisame grinned. He liked that about the teen. Always a level head and never giving in to a seemingly hopeless situation.

Yes, Kisame had already come to terms with the fact they likely would not be able to return to Amegakure.

Surprisingly, he was fine with that.

Honestly, the fact that the sea seemed to love him so much here, wherever here was, was reason enough for him to stay here. Don't get him wrong, he would be happy if they could return and he'd help the others search for a way as long as they felt like looking. But Kisame himself, he could live anywhere. He was happy as long as he had strong people to fight or spar with.

At least that's how it'd have been once upon a time. Now… Kisame had gotten… attached. Strange as that was for him. When one of his comrades, one of those Kisame trusted back in his old village had callously sold critical information to the enemy, Kisame had sworn not to put his trust into anyone anymore. Yet, the Uchiha had managed to worm his way behind the countless shields he had put up, before he knew it.

He didn't think he could leave the Uchiha to search for a way back by himself. And, knowing the teen, he would no doubt wish to return, if only to watch over his baby brother.

Yes, Kisame knew about the brat, even if Itachi didn't know it. He didn't like how he had handled the situation, far from it, but he could understand, even if he didn't approve. Plus, it wasn't like it was really Kisame's business anyhow.

He just hoped Itachi would not grow to regret it.

Soon enough, Kisame had returned to the place he left off earlier. He had found a small pile of rubble swept against one of the countless boulders in the area. It had collected in one of the cracks where the current wasn't able to carry it off.

Kisame carefully shifted some pieces to the side, inspecting each one as he did so.

'Nothing, eh…', he sighed to himself. As expected. He was about to turn around and continue searching elsewhere when a glimmer of white half-hidden by the sand caught his eyes. It must've been uncovered while he was inspecting the rubble earlier.

He carefully stretched his hands towards it, brushing off the sand.

'Oh?', Kisame smirked, 'Now, what do we have here…'

Sasori silently sat inside of his usual puppet, Hiruko, patiently awaiting the small vessel steadily approaching his own position. He absentmindedly played with the spine-like bladed tail attached to the hunchbacked looking chimera.

He was quite disappointed in himself, honestly. While he hadn't been useless to the mission, exactly, his pride and joy, his life's work, his art… was _flawed_.

This would not do. This wouldn't do at all.

He swore that first thing he would ocean-proof at least some of his works.

'In fact', he grinned in excitement, 'perfecting my craft more and more like this… I'm… happy."

Yes, discovering and promptly fixing the flaws in his designs was his pride. He relished it, lived for it even. He didn't think there could be a greater feeling than the pride he felt once he succeeded in a self-appointed task.

Sasori was quite excited to find out how his puppet would keep up with the Samurai of this weird place. He couldn't wait.

When the boat finally was within speaking distance of the ninjas' own makeshift one, Sasori was the first to address the lone swordsman on the vessel.

"Greetings", he said simply. It was time to test the waters.

"Good evening.", the polite reply couldn't quite hide the slight tinge of suspicion in the young samurai's voice.

"Is there anything I can help you with?", Sasori asked equally politely.

"Oh no, I was just passing by. I don't usually see someone in this part of the sea so I thought I'd drop by to say hello."

"Ah, yes. It's my first time around here. You must come here a lot to notice. How nice."

"Is there anything in particular you're looking for here then?"

The tone of the swordsman became flatter the longer they talked. How interesting. Obviously, he suspected something was wrong. He was a paranoid one, that's for sure. Sasori wondered at the cause. Was it because there was something here the man didn't want anyone to find?

"Nothing in particular, no."

"I see."

The swordsman obviously didn't believe a word he was saying. How irritating.

"In that case, may I ask why you _are_ here? You haven't been moving for the last hour at least."

"Aa, honestly… in the kind of boat I'm currently in I wouldn't get very far anyhow."

"That's not an answer", eyes narrowed, he practically growled.

"I was not aware I owed you one", Sasori couldn't help himself but quip back. Okay, so maybe he wasn't the most democratic of ninja, sue him.

'Well', Mihawk mused defensively, 'I did try playing nice.'

He observed the lone hunch-backed man on his quite frankly insulting excuse of a boat. He would be quite tall if he was straight-backed. He was wearing a long cloak that covered his whole body but the face, which in turn was half-hidden by a piece of fabric tied around the nose, kind of like a bandit's. His skin was tanned, his hair a dark grey shaved bare except for 5 single dreadlocks spread evenly over his skill. His eyes quite sunken, half-covered by his brows. The irises were small and beady. He couldn't read anything from those eyes. They almost seemed… dead.

He shuddered slightly at the thought.

"I'll ask one more time.", he finally stated, "What is your business here?"

Should he answer? Sasori wasn't sure. Perhaps a half-truth would do.

"Like I said, nothing in particular. Honestly, I'm just lost."

'A lie', the samurai concluded. The dark-skinned man seemed way too relaxed for someone lost at sea. He didn't even have any supplies in that ramshackle 'boat' of his. In all truth, he should be begging him for help. No, this was way too fishy.

Honestly, Mihawk wouldn't even bother with the man if they hadn't met at this particular location.

"I see. You leave me no choice then.", he muttered.

Mihawk drew his Katana and attacked without another word.

His blade flashed, the man narrowed his eyes and dodged, leaping over the slash and onto Mihawk's own boat. He was surprisingly agile and fast. Mihawk had aimed to split him in half.

Instead, only the 'boat' of the man had met said fate.

"Oi, oi, that wasn't very nice.", the man admonished.

Mihawk didn't honor that with a reply and attacked once more instead. This time, his opponent didn't dodge.

Sasori deflected the blade using the tail of his puppet.

Taking advantage of the momentary surprise of the swordsman, he controlled it once more to lash out at the man, aiming to take off his sword arm.

The samurai evaded.

Their exchange of blows continued, each testing the other out.

Mihawk noticed the tail-like weapon of his opponent was getting chipped by his own blows. The other obviously wasn't a swordsman and only used the appendage like a club.

'Crude but effective… to a degree'

Mihawk decided to get a little more serious. It wouldn't do if his _own_ boat was destroyed as well after all. His blows became faster and more vicious. His opponent seemed to match up well for a while but then misjudged a jump and plunged overboard and into the tea. Or so Mihawk thought.

'Wait'

There was no splash.

And the man was back, attacking him from the side this time. His tail swept at Mihawk in an arc, forcing him to parry it as the man got closer. He raised his right hand for the first time in the fight. It was made of metal.

'Shit.', Mihawk realized. 'A cyborg.'

He forcefully pushed at the tail and jumped, successfully evading a barrage of needles that would have rendered him a pincushion. Not from the arm as he had expected though, but from the man's mouth.

Gross.

Mihawk landed sideways on the walls of his cabin and pushed off, propelling him back at his opponent. Sadly, he wasn't yet skilled enough to perform a 'flying' slash continuously, or the man's irritating tail would be history by now.

His opponent dodged and came up behind him, trying for a blow to the back. Mihawk had expected this though and launched the other away and off the boat with a well-timed spinning kick.

He huffed.

That had felt like kicking a block of steel.

'It most likely was', Mihawk mused. The man was a cyborg after all.

This time, he hadn't taken his eyes off his opponent when he left his boat. No telling if the man was faking again after all.

The man soon caught himself landed on top of the water… _as if it was dry land_.

Mihawk sucked in a sharp breath.

It couldn't be…

A ninja!?

He didn't have time to recover from his shock before his opponent was once more upon him.

Yet, Mihawk's goal now changed. He went from aiming to kill to aiming to defend and incapacitate. He started observing his opponent more carefully during the fight. Something his opponent had obviously noticed if his own change in fighting was anything to go by.

Honestly, if it wasn't for their need of information, Sasori wouldn't have cared that his opponent wasn't aiming to kill anymore. He would've just finished the presumptuous bastard off for raising his sword against him in the first place. And destroying another one of his turtle shells. Seriously, it was the 2nd one already!

After yet another clash, Mihawk carefully lowered his blade, indicating his intentions for a truce.

Luckily, his opponent seemed to be in an indulgent mood.

"Found what you were looking for?", the dark-skinned man asked him gruffly.

Mihawk just nodded silently.

"You… you're a ninja, aren't you?", he asked.

"Oh? Indeed, little samurai. What gave me away?", Sasori asked drily.

"That means… you are from the Elemental Nations." It was a statement rather than a question.

Sasori narrowed his eyes at the emotion in the young swordsman's voice. It seemed that ninja weren't all that common here after all. He had involuntarily given away information. That… kind of stung. His pride as a spymaster, that is.

"Please", the samurai suddenly said, his tone sounding raw with emotion. He fell onto his knees and performed a dogeza.

"Please take me back with you!"


	5. Chapter 5

Mihawk couldn't quite believe what was happening.

He had finally found a clue! A clue that may help him return to the lands of his ancestors. If only… if only the ninja in front of him would agree to help him to get back.

For a long time, there was no response. In fact, he almost feared the man had simply left.

Mihawk did not lift his head regardless.

He had already lowered himself like this. He may as well see it through to the end.

Finally, there was a sigh.

"That's not something that's up to me to decide", the ninja finally replied.

Confused, Mihawk raised his head to look at his previous opponent. He was about to open his mouth to question him when the other pre-emptively explained.

"Our captain will decide."

At the samurai's stunned look the ninja snorted.

"You didn't honestly think I'd confront you completely alone, did you?"

He had, actually… His lips twitched slightly at his own stupidity. They were ninja, of course there would be a degree of subterfuge involved. Mihawk hadn't known that when he confronted the other though, to be fair.

"Right, of course. Then, would it be possible to speak with them?"

"Hn, it would", an unexpected voice behind him replied.

Mihawk whirled around in shock. He had nearly gotten a heart attack. How…?

Right… ninja.

He subconsciously placed a hand over his chest to calm his now racing heartbeat.

The man, or should he say teen in front of him was quite unassuming at first glance. He was shorter than himself, for one, and had long, currently wet black hair that was tied back in a low ponytail, except for some long bangs that framed his face. His pronounced tear-troughs made him look slightly older than he probably was. He was only wearing shorts, obviously just having come out of the water, revealing his lithe but powerful build. Various pouches and weapons were strapped to his body though, revealing his readiness for combat.

He lightly shook his hair to get some of the water out and re-tied it as he observed Mihawk in turn.

Looking closer at the young, 18 at most, more likely 16, face of the ninja captain, Mihawk's eyes widened. His eyes were blood-red but for 3 small tomoe spinning lazily around his iris.

He was most likely quite powerful, considering he commanded the much older ninja he fought before as a team leader. At least that's the meaning of captain he assumed the ninja meant. Life on the seas wasn't really that widespread in the Nations, as far as he knew anyhow.

Suddenly, the ninja tilted his head and raised his arm.

Thinking he had messed up already, his thoughts having led him elsewhere, Mihawk blinked as instead of the attack he had feared, a crow landed on the outstretched arm.

He knew that crow…

Mihawk's lips twitched in bemusement.

They had known he was coming for quite a while, hadn't they.

Itachi gently caressed the feathers of his faithful nin-animals, smoothing out any feathers the sea breeze had ruffled as he did.

His eyes never left the samurai before him though, observing, cataloguing.

Mihawk shuddered slightly as he noticed the crow had the same eyes as the captain in front of him. That was, quite honestly, unsettling as hell.

"You wanted to talk to me", Itachi said to remind him, his well-hidden amusement was only caught by Sasori, who shared the sentiment.

"Ah", Mihawk stuttered. Since when did he stutter!?

He took a deep breath to settle himself before trying again.

"Yes. Thank you for indulging me." Thankfully, any sign of his shock had vanished from his voice.

"I would like to return to the Elemental Nations with you, if at all possible."

He got straight to the point. Ninjas were rarely ones for pleasantries if what he was taught was correct. Thus, it was best to be direct.

"Are you unable to return there yourself?"

"That is… yes." Mihawk wasn't getting around telling this story, was he. As reluctant as he was to spill his family history to a stranger, this clue, this chance to fulfill the dream he had inherited from his ancestors would slip away if he didn't.

"It's… quite a long story to explain. Would you like to come in? I have some towels to dry off and a place to sit."

Itachi tensed slightly at the invitation but ultimately decided to take the chance. He had already placed the samurai under a genjutsu when the man had locked eyes with him. Plus, the man had not shown any hostilities after his not-quite serious scuffle with Sasori's puppet.

He nodded, motioning for the swordsman to lead the way before releasing his crow to once more join its companions in scouting for threats.

The inside of the cabin was simple. There was only a single room with a small table with two chairs on one side and various supplies in crates and barrels on the other. The samurai seemed to have used one of the chairs as a dresser if the hastily put away bundle of clothes was any indication. Other than that, the space was tidy. A small cabinet functioned as a divider to not have the room feel completely like a storage place. There weren't any windows but a small round one by the table. It was simple but it worked. He could respect that.

He took the offered towel with a thankful nod and quickly dried off most of the water he could.

Once he was done, Mihawk offered him the chair facing the door. Smart choice.

It also showed that he was somewhat sincere in his request, leaving his own back facing the door where he was aware his companion was waiting. That or he was just incredibly stupid. Itachi was hoping that second option wasn't it.

"First things first, let me introduce myself. My name is Dulacre Mihawk. My family is part of the Sanada Clan of Iron country."

He had never before gotten to introduce himself properly like this. It felt nice, finally being able to entrust someone with his true origins.

Itachi showed no reaction to this information, despite his inner surprise. The Sanada were a famous Clan of Samurai all over the Elemental Nations. Even more so in recent years, when the current head, Sanada Mifune had become the General of Iron Country, its leader. No wonder Itachi found the cross around Mihawk's neck so familiar. It was something he'd seen the general wear before.

"Uchiha Itachi", he finally decided to follow suit. It was only polite after all. That being said, this was a bit of a gamble and a test. Itachi was a known criminal throughout the Nations and the Uchiha a prevalent ninja clan, known far and wide. He carefully watched Mihawk's reaction.

Mihawk wasn't surprised. He recognized the Uchiha name from some of his childhood teachings as a prominent ninja clan. One that had been constantly at odds with the Senju clan, if he recalled correctly, before finally creating a treaty with them and forming a ninja village.

"Konohagakure, was it?", he muttered to himself. The Land of Fire and the Land of Iron were neutral, last he knew so that was good news, as long as that fact hadn't changed. Judging from the fact he still enjoyed an attached head though, Mihawk chose to be positive for now.

"Hn."

A non-answer was best, Itachi felt. He had caught the recognition at the Uchiha name, yet the man seemed not to recognize him personally. That was good. He didn't quite know how the samurai would take their status as criminals. Mihawk was the only source of information they currently had and torture never did sit right with him.

"My family came here as escorts to a merchant 4 generations ago. There used to be a large island here at the time that had a travel point to and from the Elemental Nations. They used seals for it, as far as I know, to instantly travel between the places… Both sides flourished from the trade. It was too good to last, of course. At one point, the world government took offense to the growing strength of Hien, that's what the island here used to be called, and attacked."

"Stupid control freaks", Mihawk muttered bitterly before soldiering on.

"The attack managed to damage the network of seals badly enough for it all to blow up, killing everyone present and sinking the whole island into the sea. The whirlpool is where the travel point with the seals used to be located. There were no survivors. Only the remnants that had been away at the time of the attack were left. Some merchants, a few civilians on vacation, and a few samurai, that's all. If any ninja remained, they never did contact us and we never heard any rumors about them. By that time the seal had been in use for such a long time that nobody among the people remaining knew how to return without it. They eventually settled on another island, from where they tried to find a way back until a war slowly killed them off. We never did find anything, until today. Currently, I'm all that's left of them, as far as I know."

Itachi closed his eyes in sadness. A whole island with thousands of people... destroyed due to what sounded like selfishness. And wasn't it telling just how unsurprised Itachi was at that reason. He tried to recall if there had been signs of something that could fit with the man's story in recent history. Indeed, around 130 years ago the trade route between Rain Country and their long-standing trading partner had been cut off suddenly. There was news of disappearances and nobody ever returned, which eventually caused the Daimyo at the time to decree a travel ban and now nobody even remembered who that partner had been or how to contact them.

The ban never had been lifted. Now he knew why.

"I see.", was all he could finally say.

"I will not lie to you." Itachi decided to be honest. Mihawk's explanation had confirmed some theories he'd had and filled in holes he had not connected until then. Their mission was now complete and all that was left was to return. Which, judging by their experience and Mihawk's words, was likely to be the most challenging part. Returning the man would buy them some goodwill with the Iron Nations, which was never a bad thing. And if they couldn't return, then it was best they had a source of information on the area. Thus, he would play with open cards in this case, in order to win the samurai's trust and cooperation. If worse came to worst, they could still trade for information. And if the other didn't cooperate at that time… then even Itachi would do what must be done.

Mihawk held his breath. If that's how the ninja chose to start, then…

"We currently aren't certain we can return the way we came."

As expected…

"May I ask… how it is you arrived here?"

"A seal. We arrived at the bottom of that whirlpool."

Mihawk's eyes widened slightly in surprise. Just how had the ninjas survived that? Speaking of which, how many of them were there, really? Also, did this mean the seal was, against all odds, still intact down there? Would his ancestors have had the opportunity to go back all this time?

He had so many questions to ask he didn't even know where to start. He didn't know which of them, if any, the ninja would answer either.

"Then, what do you suggest?", because the ninja wouldn't have shared anything at all if he didn't want to cooperate in some way.

"Join our team until we return to the Nations. We work together."

Mihawk blinked before lowering his head in contemplation.

'Good, he didn't jump at the suggestion despite his apparent eagerness.', Itachi thought. He had also proven that he could hold his own in a fight to a degree, keeping up and pushing back Sasori, albeit the ninja hadn't been serious. Neither had the samurai though. He would have to properly test the man if he agreed. He needed at least a rough understanding of his strength to do his job as a captain properly.

The samurai was in two minds about the offer. On one hand, this could be the only chance he ever received to return to his ancestral land and to fulfill the dreams of his family, to re-join the clan and make sure they were safe.

On the other hand, joining their team would mean putting himself under the command of the Uchiha. He would have to follow his orders until they reached the Nations, even if that took years. And Mihawk had always liked his freedom. The ninja obviously knew his own honour wouldn't allow him to bail on this deal if he agreed, even if the seal did indeed not work anymore.

Itachi Uchiha had proven himself level-headed and his strength was apparent from the way his teammate chose to follow his orders without any reluctance. He seemed stoic and quiet. He also didn't try to trick Mihawk into anything by deceiving him about the chances of return, which meant he was willing to truly cooperate, not just order him around one-sidedly.

At least that's what he hoped this meant.

"If you agree not to order me to act against the core of the Code, I'll agree."

Right. The team consisting of ninja, Mihawk couldn't expect to keep completely to the Samurai Code. The very nature of the ninjas would clash too much with that. The core though, he would not compromise.

"Children, pregnant women, cruelty, keeping your word, loyalty", the Uchiha counted off.

Mihawk nodded. Those were the cores that had the potential to affect his membership of the team. He doubted anyone had a problem with him practicing the inner virtues, like self-control.

"Hn. We can work with that.", Itachi smiled slightly. He himself wasn't too keen on breaking any of those after all. Though he had, sadly, had to break four of them already. Making the samurai compromise this much was already surprising in itself.

Mihawk sighed in relief.

"Then for the duration of our agreement, I'll be in your care", the samurai stated. With those words, he was no longer a lone wolf. He couldn't help but be nervous about what the future would bring.

"Hn. Welcome to the team."

"Thank you, captain."

"Then, it's only fair for you to meet your teammates.", Itachi said as he got up and motioned his new subordinate to follow.

When they stepped outside, three unfamiliar faces greeted the samurai.

A small redheaded boy looking to be around 15, was casually leaning against the cabin they had just vacated. His hair was quite short and messy, his eyes a greyish-brown and he wore a long wine red hooded cloak that covered him fully otherwise. He seemed quite bored.

A taller blond ninja wearing the same getup was dangling his feet off the side of the boat while sitting casually on top of the cabin roof. His hair was pulled up into a high ponytail except for the long bangs covering his left eye. His eyes were an expressive leaf green colour. He flashed him a quite manic looking grin when he noticed his stare.

The last person was… a fishman? He hadn't known there were fishmen living in the Elemental Nations. Perhaps the reverse of what happened to Mihawk had happened to the ninja? It was possible.

Anyhow, he was tall, the only member of the group taller than himself and he had light blue skin. His hair was a short midnight blue, his eyes small and beady, accentuated by three sets of curved markings. The teeth he spied as the ninja grinned at him were sharp and triangular. Despite the lack of other distinguishing traits he could see, the man reminded him strongly of a shark. He, too, donned the full-body cloak the other two were wearing, over which a light brown strap was draped, which held the oversized bandaged sword on his back in place.

He was kind of happy he wasn't the only swordsman on the team.

Was that cloak some kind of uniform? They were all wearing it so he'd assume so.

His captain coughed lightly to get his attention before gesturing to each of the members in turn, beginning with the fishman.

"Hoshigaki Kisame, specializes in swordsmanship"

He moved on to the blonde.

"Deidara, specializes in explosives"

Finally, he turned to the redhead.

"Sabaku no Sasori, specializes in puppetry. You fought him earlier"

Ah… That explained the absence of his previous opponent. It turned out, he hadn't even fought a cyborg but a puppet… Huh. No wonder its eyes looked so dead. Other than that, that puppet was scarily realistic though.

"I'm Uchiha Itachi, specialty Genjustsu"

Genjustsu, huh… weren't those illusions? Mihawk had never fought against a proper illusionist before. Out here, the only ones remotely capable with them were only some specialized Devil Fruit users, which meant his chances of running afoul of one were slim.

"This is Dulacre Mihawk. He will be joining the team. Specializes in swordsmanship. Also will act as an informant should we not manage to get the seal to take us back."

'Ah', Mihawk thought in realization. That last part was most likely why Itachi had truly invited him to join them at their first meeting. The ninjas had no information on what lay outside the Nations. That explained a few things. It also relieved him a little, to be honest. He had wondered what the ninjas really got out of helping him.

It was nearly completely dark by now. It was probably safe to say that the team wouldn't do anything else today.

"Uh, I'd like to offer the boat's usage to the team. I did end up destroying yours after all."

He must have imagined the redhead's hand twitching slightly at the reminder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are!   
> Just to clear things up a bit... this is happening pre-canon. Pre-canon for one piece AND for naruto.   
> That's why Mihawk seems weaker than he is in canon... please don't kill me? Take this second chapter for the day as a peace offering and forgive me, for I have sinned.


	6. Chapter 6

It was nice not having to manually hold their boat in place, Itachi mused to himself as he watched the sun slowly rise over the horizon. This time, they had taken to rotating the night watch, seeing as he himself would also need his energy during the day.

It was time to get the others up. They needed to finalize their strategy.

He lightly knocked on the cabin door, the action being enough to awaken his companions.

'Well', he smiled, 'if our new swordsman doesn't wake, I'll hear about it in a few seconds.'

As in on cue the quiet was broken a loud crash followed by the loud cursing of their newest team member. He wondered how the 3 ninjas had decided who got the honours.

As amusing as this was, he hoped Mihawk learned quickly.

His ears were ringing slightly from the volume of those curses. The man did have a fine pair of lungs, though. If he had anything but an earth affinity, he could be quite formidable with the more basic jutsu.

Speaking of which…

Itachi turned towards the samurai, who grumpily glared at Sasori as if the smaller man was the root of all his problems.

Repressing an amused snort, Itachi coughed lightly to get their attention.

"Dulacre-"

"Just Mihawk is fine. No need for formalities. I'm part of your team now after all."

"Mihawk.", Itachi acknowledged with a nod, "How well can you use chakra?"

The samurai sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"My instructions focused more on swordsmanship for the first few years I got to train. I learned the basics and kept doing the exercises to expand my reserves every day but all in all, I can only imbue it into my sword to strengthen slashes. I never got to complete my training before they died…"

"Hn… Channel it."

"Hm?"

"Channel it through your sword. I want to check your reserves and control"

Mihawk did.

His reserves were quite good, for a basically untrained samurai. Probably a little lower than what the average jonin would have, but the amount wasn't always what counted. Especially for Kenjutsu specialists. If he mastered his weapon properly he would be a real powerhouse.

But that wasn't important right now.

What was important was the control he had over that power.

They would need to plan accordingly if they couldn't teach him to water-walk in a short period of time.

Itachi took out an empty scroll and drew a basic seal to contain fluids on it. The whole process didn't take more than 10 seconds, he was that familiar with the process.

Swiftly, he walked to the edge of the boat and sealed 10l of seawater inside.

Mihawk watched all of this in slight disbelief.

That… was a seal, right?

"You… aren't afraid to use those things?", he hesitatingly asked.

"You saw what happened to that island because of a destroyed seal, right? How can you still use them so casually?"

He was panicking slightly. What if that scroll blew up? They were all going to die!

Itachi's eyes softened slightly. He had half expected for the man to react badly to this. After all, his family had basically been destroyed as a result of a seal and he himself didn't know much if anything about the art.

He placed his free hand on the samurai's shoulder to calm him down, before explaining.

"Don't worry. This is safe. The energy source is different."

"W-what do you mean?"

"The transport seal, at least on our side, pulled chakra from its surroundings to work. So it was constantly filled with energy, which exploded once it was destroyed. This seal cannot do that. It only works for the duration someone actively puts in chakra and instantly stops once you stop touching it. It's safe."

Mihawk stared at Itachi, silently scanning the ninja's face.

He seemed to find what he'd been looking for since he took a deep breath to calm down. He had nearly hyperventilated just then. How embarrassing.

He sheepishly scratched the back of his neck and accepted the scroll from his captain.

"Hn, the more chakra you put into this seal, the higher the amount of water that will be released. I want you to put in as little chakra as you can. I want no more than a drop of water", Itachi instructed.

If Mihawk's control was fine enough for this, then he would attempt to teach him water walking. If it wasn't, well that just meant there were fewer possibilities for them to decide from.

The swordsman felt the ninjas' gazes burning into his back. No pressure, huh.

He concentrated on the familiar energy inside of him. He reached out his proverbial fingers and plucked just a small threat from his reserves, guiding it into the scroll in his hands.

*Poof*

The small cloud of smoke nearly made him drop the scroll entirely. His shirt was drenched in seawater.

One of the ninjas snorted.

He bet it was Sasori, the sadistic bastard.

When the embarrassed Mihawk finished changing his shirt, the team sat in a makeshift circle around the small boat, ready to brainstorm and decide on a plan of attack.

"Kisame.", was all Itachi said.

"Aaa, captain. I got close enough to the whirlpool yesterday to get a rough idea of the interior. It's around a meter wide at the bottom and stays around that width until opening up around 50m later. Up to 4m from the very bottom seem to stay untouched by the water, at least they did for the hour I watched yesterday. So all we need to do is get in and out, no constant management of the thing is necessary."

That was good. They would still ready the big guns for just in case, of course.

"That being said I'd like to put forth an idea. This is the one with the least effort required that I could think of. There's also no real danger of waking up that ostrich fish."

"Ostrich fish?", Mihawk asked.

"Aaa, I found a big ostrich eel hybrid sleeping down there. No idea what it is exactly but since it's an unknown threat level we thought it's best not to disturb it."

There was a sea king down there!?

Mihawk hastily proceeded to explain what sea kings were to the ninjas. While he was sure they could drive it off, preventing its escape and potential return with backup, if it was one of the more cautious and speedy ones out there, was another story.

"So… are they edible?", Sasori asked.

"…Yes."

Why was he even trying.

They finally decided on 3 possible plans, all of which as time-efficient as the other, and prepared accordingly.

Mihawk would mainly watch during their execution since he'd never worked with the team before. This was his chance of getting an idea of how they operated.

Itachi had lent him one of his spare rebreathers for the duration of their investigation. It was an amazing invention. He didn't even dare to imagine what the government would do if they got their hands on it though. It would make the life of many people quite a bit harder, that's for sure.

Since all members of the team would work on this, they decided to seal up the boat for now.

Mihawk watched in fascination as tiny characters spread from the unassuming scroll in itachi's hand before the whole boat disappeared with a nearly silent swish of displaced air.

The scroll itself then vanished even more silently.

At Mihawk's questioning look, Itachi merely pointed to a small tattoo that could be mistaken for a mole on the side of his wrist. Right. He had used normal ink on that scroll, which would easily get smeared by the seawater. A tattoo didn't have that problem.

The group dove at an angle, following Kisame as he lead them to their positions. Sasori, Kisame, and Itachi formed a triangle around the whirlpool, close enough that they could instantly disrupt the tide around the whirlpool.

Deidara got into position next to Kisame. They were ready.

At Kisame's signal, they each performed the necessary jutsu. Deidara pushed off the nearest piece of rock and towards the center of the whirlpool, making use of the tide that had yet to be fully redirected to reach his goal.

The water around him was churning uneasily, filling the void left by the suddenly absent phenomenon, making it quite tricky to reach his position. But he managed.

He flashed through his own handseals and summoned a small protective dome made of rock. Moments later, the now-familiar roaring of the whirlpool was back, deafening and wild. Even when the water ripped chunks out of his protection, Deidara stayed calm and just recast the jutsu to reconstruct the small dome.

Finally, after the 3rd time Deidara had to do a patch-job, a familiar chakra signature flared in the correct pattern.

With one more hand-seal and a small spike of chakra, the dome dropped and the water surrounding Deidara ebbed away. True to Kisame's observation, the inside of the whirlpool measured around 1 meter. He was standing ever so slightly off centre with the violently spinning water just close enough to touch if he so chose to.

Deidara promptly got to work.

He took out a small summoning scroll Itachi had lent him for this purpose and summoned one of the man's smaller crows to his side.

The crow cawed in annoyance as it was sprayed with seawater immediately upon being called, before turning red Sharingan eyes to observe its surroundings.

He allowed the bird to perch on his shoulder as he performed a small sensory technique Iwa shinobi often used to find a place to camp that _didn't_ require them to sleep on a rock. He wasn't that proficient with the jutsu, having never seen the point of mastering it, but it was enough for his needs right now.

He could merely scan a 25m radius and a depth of 2m.

From what they figured, the seal was most likely carved into stone. It couldn't be buried deeply either or the arrival point wouldn't be considered 'free' but rather 'blocked'.

"Gotcha! Un!", Deidara said with a triumphant grin.

There was a 0,5m square stone plate buried just to his right, around 15 cm deep below the wet sand.

Deidara put on some gloves, crouched down and dug.

He could of course use a jutsu for this as well, but if he did happen to lose control even slightly he could potentially destroy the seal.

Honestly, if the ground wasn't made of pure rock around the edges of the whirlpool, things would've been so much easier.

Carefully, he dug out the plate.

'Jackpot!', he thought as he saw the seals carved inside.

He carefully lifted the plate out of the small hole, eyes on the whirlpool surrounding him as he did so. The seal was potentially still linked to its power source, so there was a possibility of an adverse reaction to him moving it.

The whirlpool continued roaring, undisturbed even as Deidara finally felt assured enough to handle the plate normally. He wrapped it into an old piece of cloth and placed it into a waterproof shoulder bag for transport.

Time to get out of there. The moving walls of water were starting to make him claustrophobic.

Deidara nodded to the crow before silently reopening the summoning scroll in invitation. It dutifully dismissed itself.

His extraction happened roughly the same way as his entrance, just in reverse.

The plan went off without a hitch.

Ok, there was a small hitch.

The first time the 3 ninjas had redirected the flow of the tide, the ostrich sea king had woken up after all. But as soon as it had opened its eyes, the unfortunate creature had met the ominously spinning gaze of the young Uchiha.

Long story short, they now knew Genjutsu worked very well against sea kings. They also currently had a new pet, at least until Itachi found a good place to gut the gigantic fish properly. So… yea, not really a hitch.

He looked into the sad, big eyes of the ostrich currently curling it's body around their boat, trying to act cute.

"…"

He wondered if it'd taste like chicken or like fish?

They were currently once more a safe distance away from the steadily turning whirlpool. Everyone was dried off somewhat and they were once more sitting in a circle. This seemed to slowly become a custom of theirs.

Everyone silently watched on as Deidara carefully unwrapped his precious cargo.

"That's the only intact plate I found", Deidara elaborated as he placed the plate carefully in the middle.

"There were a few small shards of broken stone but nothing big enough to house a proper transportation or arrival seal matrix."

The ninjas were staring at the seals carved into the plate in concentration. Mihawk, not knowing the first thing about seals except that they could be dangerous and could transport or store things, could only quietly wait as the silence stretched on.

Unexpectedly, Kisame was the first to break the silence.

The swordsman groaned in disappointment and flopped back to lie on his back. Deidara was glaring at the piece of offending stone as if it'd personally killed his puppy, and Itachi himself had closed his eyes, expression unreadable. Mihawk's heart sank.

"As we had feared", Sasori was the first to voice out their conclusion, "There's no way back."

That summed it up pretty well, didn't it.

Another long period of silence was broken by the sad coo of their new pet sea king.

'As I thought, keeping it around isn't good. Stupid bird can't even read the atmosphere', Kisame cursed to himself.

"What", he asked none of them in particular, "are we going to do now?"

The blue-skinned ninja would never admit just how defeated he sounded just then.

Itachi's eyes slowly opened once more, his gaze still locked onto the seal matrix in front of them.

"For now", he said with a determination he didn't quite feel, "we destroy it."

""What !?""

"This seal. It's only to anchor arrivals. If they accidentally destroy a part of the transportation seal while collapsing the cave tomorrow, the Elemental Nations, or at least a large part of them, could end up the same way as that island, or even worse, what with the nature chakra I'm sure it managed to store up during its century long inactivity. Even though we cut ourselves off from any potential backup that may arrive, destroying this is the only way to safely destroy the other. If this is gone, it'll become inactive. The only thing that'll happen once it's destroyed is that the area will be overflowing with nature chakra for the time it takes to dissipate, nothing else."

Itachi explained patiently.

"Once we find a way to return, I don't wish to return to a sight like this.", he admitted quietly. Once, not if, not may, but once they did.

That one word expressed all Itachi had wanted to say.

He did not give up. He would find a way to return, return home, return and let his little brother have his revenge. He owed him that much.

Strangely enough, that one word was enough to raise the others from their temporary funk.

Mihawk smiled in relief that they wouldn't give up on the search and Kisame grinned his shark-like grin at Itachi, silently thankful for the teen's positivity. Even Sasori had a determined gleam in his eyes.

"Un, let's do it. No need to get all depressed, I bet we'll find another way quickly enough.", the ever-energetic bomber demonstratively pumped his fist before decisively snatching the seal matrix they had spent so many hours to receive this morning and throwing it into the sky.

A small white owl made of clay followed right after, flashily blowing the small plate into a thousand pieces.

Itachi smiled ever so slightly at the display.

"This", he remarked as the small splinters of what was once their crushed hope rained down on them, "is just the beginning."

'Wait for me, little brother!'


	7. Chapter 7

Once he had more or less salvaged the moods of his team, Itachi had to address another serious issue.

"Our mission is technically over, even though it ended in failure. Thus, you are no longer bound to follow my orders.", he addressed his fellow ninjas.

"Regardless if you wish to stay together or do your own thing, I'll ask you to refrain from making a decision for the day."

After a short pause, Sasori was the one who surprisingly objected first.

"No.", he said stoically.

"Un. We already decided", Deidara spoke next.

"Aaa, there's nothing much to think about", Kisame agreed.

Itachi stared at them for a moment, before he nodded in acceptance.

"What is your decision?"

"Obviously, I'll stick with you, partner – no, captain.", Kisame grinned his shark-like grin at the Uchiha.

"You aren't getting out of that rematch this easily, oh fearless leader.", Deidara teased good-naturedly. There was no way he would admit that he enjoyed the others' company. No way.

They finally turned towards Sasori, awaiting his decision.

"I shall stay. This team arrangement has proven surprisingly tolerable."

Itachi couldn't help but stare at them, his surprise evident for the three ninjas. He had truly thought this was where they'd split up. After all, all 4 of them were criminals, even in a world of trained killers. He had never expected them to entrust themselves to him like this. Him! The traitor who murdered his whole clan, his own flesh and blood.

His throat closed slightly from the emotions that kind of faith stirred up. A small, near-unnoticeable smile graced his lips as he closed his eyes.

"Very well."

In that case, he would continue to act as their leader. He was surprisingly happy with that. Responsibility back in his old village had always felt heavy, weighing him down, stealing away his breath. This though… this felt more like a privilege. He felt light.

When Itachi's eyes opened once more something in his eyes had changed. It wasn't anything tangible or a change to their appearance… it was the feeling they gave of. Tranquil was the closest one could describe them.

Mihawk was surprised at the interaction. From the teamwork, mutual respect and silent understanding between them they had shown so far, as well as the wordless compliance his comrades showed the Uchiha, he had assumed they were a seasoned team that had worked together for years, not a temporary one simply compiled for a mission.

That spoke volumes of their respective skill levels. Interesting.

Itachi then promptly turned and fixed his gaze on their newest member, expression stoic once more. He had asked the others to stay earlier because they had no information on the world outside the Elemental Nations, except for the very limited information they had gathered during their exploration.

He was glad he had listened to his gut and bound the young samurai to their team.

"Mihawk"

The man looked at him in question. He observed him for a moment. He seemed disappointed but resigned. He couldn't find any blame or anger directed towards them, currently. Good.

"Since our way back is barred, I suggest an exchange of information"

'Exchange?', Mihawk blinked. He had honestly expected to just have questions fired at him and had mentally prepared himself for it ever since it became apparent that the ninjas' way back had been closed to them.

He felt strangely content with the situation, like a giant boulder he hadn't known he was carrying that had been slowly crushing him was being lifted. He hadn't realized just how heavily the responsibility of carrying his family's wishes all alone had burdened him.

He was finally not alone anymore. There was proof in front of him now, that the Elemental Nations still existed, that his family's dreams were, in fact, not impossible. Most of all, the burden of his search could now be shared with others. It was… freeing, in a way not even the open waters managed to be.

Plus, he mused as he continued staring at Itachi, he felt like he had agreed to give his loyalty to a good person. His actions until now had been considerate and thoughtful. At least he was sure Itachi wasn't a person without honour. No, he didn't think he'd regret his decision.

Mihawk nodded in agreement, curious what information his captain could offer.

"Hn. Public knowledge on recent history, about the current political situation, everything we know regarding your clan, any questions that aren't personal and we aren't bound to secrecy on"

Itachi was upfront and fair with his offer.

"In exchange, geography, common knowledge, history, politics, military, any questions, the same limitations apply."

Mihawk could live with that.

"Aaaa. Before we get started on that, there's something I need to report", Kisame interrupted sheepishly. At Itachi's raised brow he hastily explained.

"It… kind of slipped my mind last night and today I waited 'cause it didn't really have an impact on the plan."

"Hn."

Itachi slightly narrowed his eyes at his partner, but in the end decided to trust Kisame's judgement on the matter and let the issue drop, for now. He would decide what to do about it later. This could technically be considered insubordination, a serious offence in any sort of combat-oriented team. Since the team had decided to stay, Kisame was still under his command. He needed to deal with this properly.

Mihawk raised his brows once again. From the still tense line in Kisame's shoulders, he could tell the other man didn't consider himself off the hook yet, despite the fact the Uchiha had offered the option to leave just minutes ago, he had chosen to stay and confess to his mistake. The ninja seemed to truly respect Itachi as a leader, so much so it outweighed any fear or apprehension they felt for him. One thing was for sure, they didn't take him for a pushover. Once more, Mihawk reaffirmed his decision.

"I found this yesterday", Kisame said as he pulled out a slightly battered scroll from who-knows-where.

"It's still sealed, and the ink is waterproof so it should still work. Contents unknown."

A storage scroll.

Kisame found a storage scroll with unknown contents and didn't think it could've had an impact on their mission. Let him reiterate. Anything could be in there. There could potentially be knowledge on how to re-instate the link between here and their home in there, as unlikely as that was.

Itachi levelled a flat, unimpressed stare at his partner.

Kisame laughed awkwardly.

It was always impressive just how thoroughly the teenage ninja could express his opinion through a stare alone. Even more so, how he could intimidate even seasoned warriors with just a disapproving stare.

Though Kisame had to admit, he deserved whatever the young ninja would cook up as a punishment. He had messed up after all. He kicked himself mentally once more. He wasn't usually forgetful like this… Maybe the playful attention-shifting behaviour of the water here was starting to rub off on him.

If so, that would be dangerous. Very much so. Focus and awareness were indispensable to a ninja. He would have to ask Itachi to help him test this theory later, and if it proved true, then, as much as he'd hate to do so, Kisame would have to strictly limit the time he spent in the ocean from now on. He also swore to put more effort into his mental training.

Itachi finally reached out and plucked the scroll Kisame was offering him to take from his grasp.

His eyes changed from his usual inky black to the familiar red orbs Mihawk had first witnessed the ninja with. He concluded that those were the famed Doujutsu of the Uchiha clan, the power of their bloodline he had read so much about. He hadn't quite connected the dots when he first saw them.

Itachi carefully examined the small seal on the outside of the scroll that was protecting its content. It was a standard seal, thankfully. Not a blood locked one. It was also still fully intact, meaning it was safe to open.

Thus, Itachi bit his thumb and smeared a few drops of blood across the seal, which promptly disappeared without a hitch.

Itachi unrolled the scroll and examined the neatly labelled individual storage seals painted within. They did not show any signs of water damage, despite the likely prolonged period of time the scroll had spent at the bottom of the ocean.

"Hn. Seems to have been used to store things that travellers wished to store temporarily when leaving the island. Dates, signatures, names, presumed return date. Surprisingly, most aren't blood locked. Likely civilian."

There were dozens of them.

Itachi's gaze stopped at a certain spot on the scroll.

Sanada Ichinose.

His gaze flicked over to Mihawk who was staring at the scroll in his hand with growing hope. The man had been surprisingly patient and quiet. Remaining so while he knew they were soon to divulge information on his only remaining family spoke volumes of his self-control.

From his expression, Itachi presumed the samurai had a good idea or at least a hope of just what was contained inside this particular seal.

He continued perusing the names, searching for anything else that was familiar.

Hoshigaki Aozora.

Apparently, part of Kisame's family came through here as well. Huh.

He continued reading, recognizing some of the names on there. None of the others had any connection to any of them from what he could tell though, not until his gaze came to rest at the last name.

Uchiha Madara.

What.

Itachi blinked and read the line again. It didn't change. This… didn't make any sense.

The quiet shuffle of clothing snapped the young Uchiha out of his stupor. His newest companion seemed to have lost his battle with patience, understandably enough. He resolutely shoved the mystery to the back of his mind. He would investigate once he was alone.

"Mihawk. One seal is of the Sanada. Do you want me to release it?"

The seal's contents rightfully belonged to the samurai, but the man's chakra control was atrocious. It was best if one of them did it for him.

Mihawk's eyes lit up.

"Please", he said quietly, hopefully. In fact, sitting still like he was, was already considered a small miracle. Because… If this seal contained what he hoped it did, then the biggest regret of his clan would be rendered void.

Even _his_ self-control wasn't that all-encompassing.

Thus, Itachi placed the scroll on the ground and motioned for the samurai to join him. The stoic teen had talked more during the last few days then he normally would in months. The downsides of leadership, he mused drily.

The Sanada's seal was one of the few blood locked ones.

"Blood. A few drops are enough."

The samurai nodded. He had seen Itachi release the seal with his own blood earlier so he wasn't suspicious about it. He wasn't used to biting his own fingers bloody though, so Mihawk slightly twisted the bottom of the cross on his neck, revealing the small dagger hidden within and nicked his finger with it.

The Uchiha then took his hand and pressed it against the seal with his own, feeding the necessary amount of chakra into it as he went. There seemed to be quite a few things stored within, judging from the amount of chakra that was needed.

So, when the seal was fully released, he didn't let go of the samurai's hand but tightened his grip instead, and pulled the man a few steps back, leaving the scroll lying on the ground.

With a familiar plume of smoke, a small mountain of items appeared on top of the scroll. There were armors, some weapons and personal artefacts. The most eye-catching of which was a very big but thin blade with an oversized golden cross-guard that was ornately decorated with emeralds. Its long grip was wrapped in gauze. Itachi estimated the whole thing was around 7 feet long. The blade itself was pitch-black and gleamed dangerously in the light. It looked like a mix between a ceremonial blade and a truly dangerous weapon.

"Yoru", Mihawk said with emotion, unable to take his eyes off the sword.

His family's heirloom blade. This was the reason why his family had kept returning here, year by year, to spend a week searching the bottom of the sea, in the vain hope to recover their heritage.

And these ninjas were the ones who found it. From their gazes they seemed to be interested but there was no greed. He had truly lucked out this time.

"Want me to seal the rest up individually? You can examine them later.", Itachi offered.

Absentminded, Mihawk nodded. He reverently stepped up and took the blade into his hands. A blade had never felt as right in his hands as this one did at that moment. The overwhelming emotions he felt could not be put into words.

Leaving their samurai a semblance of privacy to revel in peace, Itachi quickly got to work sealing the individual possessions of the Sanada family into a separate scroll. He didn't look into any of the boxes or bundles and just sealed them all individually. It was none of his business.

Once he was done, he neatly labelled the scroll and placed it to his side. He would return it once the young swordsman came out of his daze. He did not want to disturb him in his emotional state.

"Kisame"

He motioned the still slightly guilty looking ninja over before motioning to the name on the seal. He handed to man the scroll.

Kisame stared at the name on top of the seal, stunned. Aozora, that was his great-grandmother's name. The woman everyone declared to be off her rocker. Something about an island of fishmen.

To think, she had passed through here.

Kisame nodded his thanks and jumped onto the roof of the cabin. It wasn't really private, per se but the other ninjas understood his intentions and knowingly turned their backs.

The blue-skinned ninja once more reaffirmed his appreciation for his teammates. If any of the other Akatsuki members had been here instead, he doubted he'd have gotten any form of privacy at all for this. Instead, they'd possibly even have neglected to mention the seal at all, just to be petty.

He gently traced the name of his long-dead relative, apprehensive of what he'd find. Was there any truth to the stories she had told? Which of them were true? If this is where his family had come from, did that mean he had family left out here somewhere?

Only one way to find out.

Kisame bit his thumb and placed his bloody hand on top of the seal.

He didn't really have to use much chakra, the items sealed inside merely forming a small pile when he released them. There were a few bags, a big box labelled 'navigation', some books that looked like journals, another box labelled 'weapons' and some bundled up items he'd have to unwrap to identify. The last item was a weirdly clunky looking bracelet. He would investigate all of this later.

Sealing away everything but the bracelet, Kisame rolled up the scroll and jumped back down to hand it back to Itachi.

"Now then, items owned by family aside, we will discuss what's going to happen to the rest later.", Itachi decided. This was because he figured they wouldn't be able to identify some of the items or even throw out something important because they couldn't recognize its significance. They needed to get up to snuff regarding the common knowledge at least.

Mihawk had in the meantime re-joined their circle, his sword Yoru comfortably resting over his knees. His fingers were absentmindedly exploring the ornaments on the blade's guard as he quietly chatted with Deidara.

"Mihawk"

"Yes, captain?"

The samurai's tone had become more natural as he spoke to them. Likely due to the unhesitant return of his heritage. It would seem he had started to truly accept his place among them. That was good.

"Let's start"

The samurai tensed with nerves. He was about to hear of his family. Did they even still exist? Did they thrive? Were they happy? He wanted to know, yet he dreaded the answer at the same time.

"Kisame. Your punishment."

The blue-skinned man stood up straight and faced their leader, attention fully focused.

"Charged with training Mihawk, sword and chakra. Get him up to our standards. Also, explanations are up to you. Lastly, see me for extra training until further notice."

Kisame relaxed slightly, accepting the verdict with a nod and a "Yes, captain". It may seem a bit much if one considered what ended up being in the scroll but if one factored in what could've been in it instead it was just a slap on the wrist, really. Itachi had chosen a fair middle-ground between the two.

Though Kisame was under no illusion that this 'extra training' would be anything but gruelling. He was officially now under the Uchiha's command. That also made him his responsibility. Another mistake like this couldn't be allowed to happen.

Mihawk gaped.

'Training? Up to their standards?'

He hadn't been aware the ninjas considered him to be so far behind. They even planned to instruct them in some of their techniques! Wasn't that against some sort of rules? Also, why go so far?

The Uchiha must have correctly interpreted his scepticism as he proceeded to explain.

"Hn, teams work best if the members have similar power levels. I'll use the Iron country's ranking system to explain. Judging only from what we saw in your fight with Sasori, you have the equivalent of a 2nd lieutenant's level of power at the least. Let's say you fought at 50% of your real strength at that point. That'd make you a captain level samurai at full power. In comparison, any one of the ninjas in our team could quite easily defeat an opponent at the strength of a general."

In short, Mihaw's overall combat power put him around the rank of a seasoned Chunin or fresh Jonin, while each member of their team had the power to potentially defeat a Kage in a 1 on 1 battle if the matchup wasn't horribly disadvantageous.

Mihawk gulped.

He… what kind of monsters had he joined!?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we are. The chapter that should give you an idea as to how little I adhered to the timelines of the original works...  
> Just to let you know, I had written 30 chapters in my exam phase for this story, 2 of which I've since binned/merged. That means I'm currently only proofreading those chapters and posting them as I find the time.   
> Once we reach ch 28 the update speed will thus slow considerably.  
> You've been warned!


	8. Chapter 8

After Kisame and the rest of them told the young samurai everything they knew about his family's current situation, it was finally time for them to learn about this place. Anything else wasn't truly urgent information for the man and could be told later on.

"Start with an overview, geography would be best", Itachi instructed.

Mihawk nodded, grabbed an empty sheet of paper from his cabin along with some coal, as a substitute for feather and ink, and started his explanation.

"A complete map of the world doesn't exist, or if it does nobody feels like sharing.", he stated at their questioning looks.

"Basically, there is one big continent in this world that surrounds the planet like a ring. This is called the Red Line and is the biggest connected landmass in the world. All other landmasses are islands of varying sizes. Crossing the Red Line at a 90° angle is an ocean called the Grand Line. This ocean is extremely dangerous and not much is known about it but the fact that most who attempt to traverse it never return. Surrounding this ocean on both sides are strips of sea called the Calm Belt. No wind ever blows there and it's the home of thousands upon thousands of sea kings. Crossing it is considered near impossible."

The ninjas nodded. It was easy enough to understand so far.

"Next, the four parts of the world thus divided by the two Lines are called the North, South, East and West Blue respectively…."

His explanations went on and on. Mihawk talked about many things that were basic knowledge. They learned about the world government, a tyrannical sounding organization that was in control of most of the known lands with their army called the Marines policing their territories. They learned of the Revolutionaries trying to overthrow said government and of the criminals, the pirates, and the recently deceased pirate king, who, even in his last moments, managed to make trouble for the Marines with 2 short sentences.

They learned about the currency, about weapons, and finally, about Devil Fruits.

"So, let me get this straight.", Deidara summed up in disbelief, "just by eating some fruit one can get the power to turn their whole body into fire. But in exchange certain rocks and bodies of water larger than a puddle will make one helpless."

"Basically, yes."

"What the actual fuck. Are people aware basically the whole fucking planet is made of water!?"

Deidara cursed in exasperation.

Some humans would literally do anything for power, even if that power came at such great a cost as this one apparently did. Not to mention that, since the fruits could literally appear anywhere, some careless sod or unwary child could eat one by accident, thus, never being able to swim again.

"Hn. We don't have to like it, just live with it."

Kisame stayed uncharacteristically silent throughout the whole thing, ever since Mihawk had explained the different races he knew of that populated the seas.

Fishmen. They were real.

"Those fishmen", Kisame finally broke his silence to ask, "are they like me?"

Mihawk knowingly looked at the ninja before him.

"There are thousands of different kinds of fishmen, but they all share the same characteristics. Some traits of a sea creature, gills, and rough skin which is usually differently coloured than that of humans. So, yes. Though apart from your colouring and teeth you don't seem to exhibit many other common traits like fins, I could immediately tell you were a fishman."

That… was surprising.

The other ninjas had always just assumed it was a bloodline limit of some kind, like the special eyes of the Uchiha or something. Well, depending on how you looked at it, it kind of was. It wasn't like you could learn to belong to a different race after all.

Kisame smirked.

He wouldn't mind meeting some of his distant family at some point. Apparently, they lived below the Red Line somewhere. He wasn't impatient. He had lived all his life thinking he was alone, he could wait until their investigation led them somewhere close.

"News", Itachi simply said.

And so, Mihawk's explanations started once more, the seagulls who delivered newspapers, the weird half-technology, half-living beings called cyborgs, etc.

By the time the ninjas finally deemed it alright to stop for the day, night had already fallen long ago. Finally dismissed, the samurai bonelessly collapsed, his voice dead. He stared up at the clear starry sky with unseeing eyes.

He didn't think he'd talked as much as he had today in the last year.

For a moment, he doubted his vocal cords would ever recover.

Not to mention, they had sat and talked the whole day, questions over questions, only drinking something occasionally when it became apparent Mihawk was at his limit.

He was hungry. Hungry and tired.

The samurai was so lost in his own misery that he didn't even notice his captain until the teen placed a plate down next to his cheek.

A warm plate which smelled downright divine.

Mihawk didn't know where he found the energy to, but he quickly sat up and snatched the plate up, as if his life depended on it, before digging in.

Itachi watched on in quiet amusement. He had finally decided to gut the captured sea king. He had a scroll full of its meat in stasis now. At least their food supplies wouldn't run out any time soon. His first time preparing sea king seemed to have gone well, judging by the greedy way in which the samurai ate.

They had perhaps picked the man's brain a little too much today.

In no time at all, Mihawk had emptied his plate. He felt alive again. Dear Lord, that had hit the spot.

"Thank you.", he said sheepishly.

"Seconds?"

"… please"

"Hn. I made a lot."

'The captain made this!?'

"I'm glad you like it."

Even Mihawk could see the barely hidden amusement on Itachi's face this time. He did not have the energy to be any more embarrassed than he already was.

"Hey, captain?", Mihawk asked as the ninja returned, voice still basically toneless from the strain he had put on it today. Yet, he couldn't help but indulge his curiosity.

"May I ask a personal question?"

Itachi merely quirked an eyebrow as a gesture to go ahead. He would merely not answer if the question made him uncomfortable.

"How old are you?", he asked curiously. He really wanted to know if his estimate was correct.

Itachi blinked for a moment, actually having to think about it. How old was he?

"16", he finally said.

Mihawk couldn't even imagine what the teen had been through to be powerful and respected enough to lead this monstrous team on missions.

They continued talking for a while, just some small-talk, nothing serious.

Mihawk could barely even remember when he fell asleep, right there on deck, under the cover of the stars.

When their samurai finally drifted off into a deep sleep, the four ninjas convened on the roof.

"What's your opinion?", Itachi asked.

"Aaa, he's a good kid. You made the right decision", was all Kisame said.

"From his body language and expressions, he does not appear to be untruthful. There are no apparent discrepancies to his story or explanation either. I cannot fathom any logical reason for him to lie to us either. It's obvious he has no idea of our identities.", Sasori explained his analysis.

"Un, you'd have caught it if he had recognized any of our names or faces. Even most civilians in the Nations recognize us on sight by now. He obviously has outdated knowledge, not knowing of the other major villages but Konohagakure or he'd have been suspicious, Sasori's name being what it is."

"I also believe him", Itachi finally said. "Mostly since his information could be verified easily enough once we reach any town of some kind. As for his background… even if he hadn't been accepted by the blood locked seal, Lord Mifune may be a just man but even he won't tolerate those posing as his family."

"So, in conclusion…", Kisame started.

"… we'll trust him, for now.", Deidara finished.

"until he proves untrustworthy", Sasori added.

The Uchiha nodded. Mihawk would still be watched carefully for a while, regardless. That was just common sense. But unless he really planned to trick or betray them, the ninjas were ready to accept him in their midst.

The next morning dawned bright and early. Way too early, in Mihawk's opinion.

He groaned loudly as the first rays of the sun pierced through his closed eyelids, inwardly cursing his sensitive eyesight.

A quiet chuckle sounded above his head.

"Sleeping beauty is finally awake, huh?", Deidara teased.

"Want some breakfast?"

His growling stomach was all the answer the bomber needed. Laughing outright now, he still went and readied a plate for the tired samurai.

After breakfast, the same routine as yesterday continued. They questioned, Mihawk answered. His answers brought along more questions, which he also answered.

On the 5th day of this, just after noon, Itachi finally put a stop to their interrogation. Not because they were satisfied with the information they had gotten, far from it. But honestly, Mihawk looked like death warmed over, which surprisingly didn't much influence his capability to answer their questions. He hadn't complained or asked for a break, not once. Yet, seeing the state the samurai was in left a bad taste in Itachi's mouth. He'd have put his foot down today, regardless of the fact that more and more the questions they asked weren't ones Mihawk had an answer to.

They had finally arrived at the point where their own investigation would start.

Mihawk didn't even register their leader had moved until a gentle hand was placed on his shoulder. He owlishly blinked up into the faintly smiling face of the Uchiha, confusion apparent.

When? How -?

"You did well", Itachi praised quietly, "For now, rest."

Dumbfounded, Mihawk could only nod and silently stumble inside, honestly too tired to argue. He had been too exhausted the past few days to bother putting up his hammock but he had missed the gentle swaying of the thing terribly. His back still ached faintly from sleeping on the bare wood outside for so many nights.

As soon as he finally relaxed against the familiar piece of fabric, Mihawk was out cold.

"His willpower is something else", Kisame praised, "It took me weeks of painful training to stay coherent for so long without proper rest."

"Hn. A good seedling"

Deidara and Sasori nodded in agreement.

"Well, the same goes for us though. Finish compiling what we've learned. We'll call it a day early today. Tomorrow we get up early and plan."

That's just what they did. As ninjas, they were conditioned to be able to fall asleep anywhere and anytime if they so desired. At the same time, they were capable of staying up for weeks on end, if the mission required it. Though they would crash and burn horribly afterward and their performance would be strongly impaired towards the end.

Thus, not an hour later, everyone but Deidara, who had volunteered for first watch, was sleeping like a log.

If asked, Mihawk couldn't have told you why he never asked for a reprieve from the incessant questions the last few days. Perhaps he had taken it as a kind of test to himself or he had wanted to prove something to his new comrades. Despite the fact he still didn't quite feel himself when he woke up, he could not bring himself to regret it.

Itachi just had a way about him that made one want to please the teen, to live up to his expectations, Mihawk decided.

That was a very scary ability if used incorrectly, or correctly, depending on one's point of view and/or moral code.

When he wandered outside, it was still dark. Yet, his companions were already awake, quietly re-packing their things to include the familiar and unfamiliar items they had extracted from the previously sunken storage scroll and split yesterday morning. Those things just hadn't been organized in places that made sense in their system yet.

Mihawk himself had also kept various useful titbits that had come out of that scroll, though he had yet to organize them.

"Good morning"

The samurai was still not quite used to not being alone on his boat. Don't get him wrong, he did enjoy the company, it would just take a while to get accustomed to constantly be around people again.

Itachi tossed a small bundle with breakfast his way but motioned for him to eat as they gathered.

The circle that had become their custom established once more, Itachi started straight into the topic at hand without further ado.

"Now that we have a rough understanding of the workings out there, the goal is to expand on that knowledge while considering the most likely venues that could lead to the information we need. That being said, before going anywhere near the Grand Line, which is filled with unknowns, we shall scout the other Blues first."

Itachi explained in a little more detail than he normally would since Mihawk wasn't used to his way of thinking, to avoid confusion.

Seeing as no immediate suggestions were forthcoming, Itachi continued.

"From what we have gathered I picked out one thing for each blue to focus on in particular. Opinions are welcome. North blue, revolutionaries. South blue, marines. East blue, Roger. West blue, the underworld."

No objections. His teammates had apparently come to a similar conclusion. The exact power of the world government and its nobles was still unknown. It was better not to be hasty right off the bat.

"Hn. We split up. Mihawk with Kisame. Communication via my summons until we get our hands on a white den-den mushi so calls will not get overheard. Report if anything is found or if there is trouble."

"West", Sasori called.

"Un, then I'll go north."

"We will stay east then"

Itachi nodded. He had assumed he'd be left with the South. The other three were far more interesting after all.

"If we do not find anything, we meet at Logue Town in 18 months."

And thus, with some last clarifications, Itachi handed each person several 1-time use seals to call upon a crow summon. Thus, the ninjas ended up splitting up.

Deidara and Sasori left first, deciding to simply water-walk to the nearest island for now. Deidara had been disgruntled at first but took the long separation as a chance to properly prepare for yet another rematch against the Uchiha. Sasori himself was quite eager to see what kind of poisons he could unearth at the Blue with the biggest criminal presence. Thus, they both didn't raise much of a stink as they left.

"Captain", Mihawk stopped Itachi as he was about to take his leave himself.

"I just wanted to thank you."

"Hn?"

"I was quite close to giving up when I ran into you. You taught me a lot in the short time I've joined you guys and found something that I thought I had lost. But most of all, you gave me new hope. So, thank you, captain, for taking me in."

Mihawk lowered his head and bowed deeply at the waist. He had felt like he would regret it forever if he didn't say this now.

Itachi just stared at the samurai for a moment, trying to decide how to feel about this, or what to say to something like that.

Finally, he settled for ruffling the taller man's hair like he would his little brother's.

"You are welcome, Mihawk. I am glad you did not come to regret your decision. Work hard."

When the samurai came out of his bow again, the teen was gone.


	9. Chapter 9

Itachi had not made the decision to split the team up lightly, not at all. In fact, he still wasn't quite happy with his decision personally. It had been the logical choice though, when taking into account the information at hand. Three of those were the most important.

First and foremost was the sheer vastness of the outside world. Getting from the middle of one Blue to the other took months even if you were sailing in favourable conditions, according to their samurai. While the ninjas could technically run a lot faster than that, doing so weeks at a time if there were long stretches of uninterrupted sea between them and wherever they were going, it'd take their toll even on them. So, commuting between Blues if they caught news of anything of interest would take a long time and cause them to lose a valuable clue.

Secondly, while exploring as a group was preferable and would cause them to be able to get more thorough results more quickly, it also meant they'd have no sources whatsoever in other places, which, again, would mean they could easily miss an opportunity. In addition, Mihaw's current level of training meant his fastest mode of travel was that boat of his, which, quite frankly, was really slow. The stretch of sea it took Mihawk 6 hours to travel the other day, would take them around 30 minutes at a casual pace, 15 if they hurried. Itachi estimated that if he pulled out all stops without care about tiring himself, he would take 25 seconds at most, and that was without chakra.

Besides, for a task like information gathering, the more people move together, the more easily you were found out.

The final reason was that each of the ninjas preferred a different modus operandi for tasks like this and was best at that particular one. Splitting up and leaching each to implement it properly would yield the best results overall. Sasori himself owned a vast network of informants and sleeper agents back in the Nations, Deidara was incredible at blending in and slipping into places he by all rights shouldn't be, as well as converting people to his informants without said people even being aware that's what they were.

Kisame's specialties lay as far from information gathering as it could be. Mainly due to his build being what it was, but also due to his battle-thirsty nature. The transformation jutsu helped, of course, and the man _was_ a ninja and thus had decent abilities of stealth by default. Adding that to this world's vast waters which he could be undetectable in, he was especially adept in sneaking onto ships or other locations close to larger bodies of water.

That, combined with the fact he had a 'local' in the form of Mihawk with him who could point him in the right direction and act as a distraction or support him in other ways, Kisame shouldn't have a problem keeping his ear to the ground.

Itachi himself was, in contrast, best at observing and deduction. He could easily sneak around and squirrel out documents from fortified locations. He also had his Illusions, which made it quite easy to get information out of most people. Once he managed to master his eyes' abilities to an even larger degree, he could potentially even see people's memories if they met his eyes and if he so wished, after which he could edit himself out of them, leaving no trace behind.

He wasn't bragging when he said that as an individual, he had the greatest skillset for this task.

That was also the reason he was glad none of the others had chosen to investigate the Marines. The Marines were a power closely associated and subordinate to the world government, which held the biggest influence over the world. That made it the riskiest target out of the four and thus, would require the most caution.

In contrast, a lot of people were interested in Roger due to his recent execution, resulting in the man being a topic talked about all over the place, especially in East Blue, where his origins lay and his influence was strongest.

The revolutionaries quite openly participated in certain conflicts, and recruited victims of those conflicts quite regularly, from what the samurai had told them, so locating them and securing a place among them should not take too much effort on Deidara's part.

Lastly, the underworld. Its existence appeared to be an open secret even in the other Blues so stepping a foot into it wouldn't be too challenging, especially for someone like Sasori. It was the most fitting starting point to establish an information network, which was why he hadn't been surprised the puppeteer had picked it without hesitation. Another perk was that the Tree of knowledge, which hosted a treasure trove of historical and modern information.

A very tempting destination, indeed.

So, no, while Itachi did not particularly feel like leaving the only connections he currently had to home to traipse around the globe by their lonesome, he had still gone through with the decision.

When he was honest, they each probably needed this time to unwind a little and not snap at each other due to the uncertainty and sheer insecurity of the situation that they were in with people they didn't even trust, no place to retreat to, to relax, to be themselves and let go of their masks.

Until they had somewhat gotten used to this place, this was best.

Itachi repeatedly told himself all this repeatedly, in an attempt to talk his uneasiness out of existence. He did have a lot of time on his hands on this journey, so he held out hope it'd work eventually.

"Kreee!", Kuromu cawed loudly to get his attention, "This truly is outside the Elemental Nations, isn't it. I half-thought you were trying to be funny."

It had been 19 days since he left the small boat and summoned Kuromu to fly him to his destination. On the way, he had roughly briefed the summon on the situation, especially what they knew of the geography.

The summon had been understandably skeptic at first, but had decided to reserve judgment, until they reached what Mihawk had called the Red Line.

They could've reached the south blue earlier by crossing over the Grand Line, if one simply took into account the physical distance separating the two. Yet, the weird weather phenomenons of the grand line and the windless nature of the calm belts surrounding them would have made Kuromu's flight potentially hazardous, prolonging their travel time immensely at best.

In contrast, the Red Line promised to be less trouble… if they flew high enough for the strong winds near the elevated land to have lost some strength.

Kuromu's comment made Itachi sit up from the casual way he had sprawled across the oversized crow's back to watch the clouds zip by. It was an entertaining pastime at high speeds, and good training for his eyes, trying to focus on details as much as possible.

He turned towards the front and sucked in a harsh breath at the sight.

There it was, the Red Line.

Mihawk truly hadn't done the place justice in his descriptions. Then again, even Itachi doubted he could describe it to his own satisfaction.

The continent was located around 6.000 m above sea level. There were no gentle slopes down towards the ocean, but only steep cliffs and howling winds, stretching from one end of the horizon to the other.

It was one of the most awe-inspiring things he had ever seen, even some clouds wouldn't float as high. It must be a majestic sight, looking down from above as an ocean of clouds stretched below you on a cloudy day.

Kuromu slowed his speed and instead concentrated on ascending higher. To remain undetected, they'd have to be at least a few km above the place. Even if someone saw them as the black dot they'd appear to be, Itachi hoped they'd pass fast enough to be considered a trick of the mind.

An hour later, they had passed the giant obstacle without a hitch. They had been in luck. Thick clouds were covering the sky below them, forming a layer of grey between the Red Line and them. Still, Itachi couldn't fully relax until the landmass was out of sight.

"Drop me off just out of sight of the nearest island, Kuromu.", Itachi instructed.

He would have to think of something nice to reward the summon for playing transportation for him for all this time. The crow herself had admitted shed never flown even close to as long or as far in her entire life, even on the Crow summons' own island. In comparison, she could cross the entirety of the Elemental Nations in 20 minutes at the speed they had been going at these past few days. She hadn't even taken many breaks either. Her pride hadn't allowed it.

Itachi had indulged her, but only because she had pleaded with him to. Something about making the others _so_ jealous that they hadn't gotten to see this place first.

Finally, having glimpsed some land in the distance, Kuromu circled around and smoothly descended towards the ocean surface. With a last flap of her tired wings, she landed gently on the peacefully glittering water.

"Thank you, Kuromu. You've been a godsend these last few days.", Itachi praised honestly. He hopped off and gently patted the feathers around her beak.

"Oh, stop it, you! You're making me blush! Kreee", she cawed in embarrassment, even as she enjoyed the ministrations with closed eyes.

"Here", Itachi said instead of arguing with the bashful bird.

He took out a small storage scroll and held it out to the summon.

"It's a small gift for your hard work. It's filled with a third of the sea king meat I told you about. Some of it is already prepared, but around 2/3 is still raw. I know you'll enjoy both."

The crow cooed happily.

"Oh, wow! Kree! Your cooking always tastes amazing! And meat I've never tried before at that! The others will be so jealous!"

Itachi did not blush at the compliment. Not at all.

She was practically vibrating in excitement by the time she gently accepted the scroll with her beak.

"I hope the winds favour you until we next meet, Kuromu"

She nodded and, with a giddy expression on her feathered face, she disappeared back to her Clan with a quiet poof and a wisp of smoke.

Once she was gone, Itachi quickly formed a single hand-seal. He performed a Genjutsu he used quite a lot to remain unchallenged on occasions he had to mingle. He had developed it quite a while ago due to one of the greatest foes he had encountered back in his home village.

Fangirls.

Itachi shuddered slightly at the thought of them. They were the one enemy he had never managed to defeat. In the face of the sheer terror that were fangirls, even he could only run or hide.

It was a technique that made anyone who focused on you dismiss you as unimportant. It was mainly meant as a precaution since Itachi didn't plan to openly water-walk there openly like a moron.

No, he would mainly rely on the rebreather for this last stretch of ocean.

From the glimpses he had gotten of the island earlier, he could tell there was a decently sized town inside a bay roughly facing his direction. He had seen several larger and smaller ships in the harbour, so it seemed quite well-visited.

There was a forest growing right up to the shore a few km west of the furthest building he had been able to make out from Kuromu's back.

That would be where Itachi would aim to enter. He would then stay hidden for a while to ascertain the general style of dress and looks, before using the trusty transformation technique to blend in.

The plan was simple, almost boring, really. As long as it worked though, Itachi didn't care.

He stretched one last time before once more sealing away his clothing and diving into the water below. It was colder than in the East Blue. Visibility also wasn't quite as clear, which may be because the island was nearby. He assumed fisher boats would have a lot to do with it. That didn't really matter to him though. He didn't plan to dive deeply this time, just low enough for him to be hard to see from above. The sea was quite reflective by itself, so him staying out of sight even just 5m below the surface was already a near certainty.

Thus, Itachi steadily swam his way towards his first town outside the Elemental Nations. Inwardly he was quite curious just how different it'd be from their towns back home. The people, the architecture, the atmosphere…

Truthfully, Itachi found himself enjoying this little adventure of theirs more and more, regardless of his best efforts not to. Don't get him wrong, he'd never stop searching for a way back. He owed his little brother that much. He just… something inside his chest, something hard, tired and sad, had started to loosen since they had come here.

Itachi didn't dwell on it. Much.

He had finally found a suitable point of exit. Itachi carefully surveyed the surrounding area one more time. It couldn't be seen from the sea but from his back, Trees and bushes grew quite thickly. The forest's growth didn't seem to be controlled. Visibility was low.

Everything checked out.

With one last careful survey and a glance behind, Itachi stretched his hands out of the water and heaved himself on land, disturbing the water surface as little as possible.

Itachi was hyper-aware of the feeling of the grass beneath his feet as he quickly straightened up and jumped onto a nearby tree branch.

The trees here weren't as tall as he was used to, but they enabled him to get quite a few meters above the ground regardless. After a minute of moving inland, Itachi felt safe enough to stop for a few moments to dry off and get dressed in his old clothes. He wrinkled his nose.

He would have to locate a source of freshwater before even thinking of heading into town. He smelled like a weird combination of chicken coop and seaweed.

And if his crows ever heard that comparison, they'd probably drop him into an active volcano.

It didn't take long for Itachi to find a small stream to clean off in. Finally, he felt clean again. Salt and sand were a pain to get off of one's person on open waters.

He remembered this location in case he hadn't managed to establish a base in time before he needed another scrub.

By the time Itachi was crouched near the edge of the forest, overlooking the surprisingly large coastal town, it was close to sunset. He hadn't dared to summon his nin-animals quite yet. This mission required him to stay undetected. He couldn't afford to summon his companions if birds like them had never been seen in the area.

So, he chose the most well-concealed location he could find and settled in for a few hours of people-watching. After concealing his hiding place even better, of course.

Yes, Itachi was a paranoid bastard. Sue him.

Over the next two hours, Itachi did nothing but watch, analyze and deduce. The buildings were clearly foreign, all white with rust coloured tiles covering the pointed roofs. A lot of them were near-exact copies of each other but for small personal touches of the residents. Even inns and stores seemed to follow this pattern. They could only be distinguished by a sign or occasional glass front, as well as the inside of course. He had gotten a rough idea of the clothing normal civilians wore, of the ones the merchants wore, could point out the scarce pirates he saw around and knew exactly who amongst the people visiting the evening market was a traveler and who wasn't.

While the aesthetics of everything were new and strange to Itachi, people themselves and their habits were still the same. So was the language. He felt relieved at that. He didn't know what he'd do if he had to learn a whole new set of habits and mannerisms _again_.

By the time Itachi felt he was ready for an appearance in town, night had fallen already and only the bars were still open. Arriving now would be too suspicious unless he replaced one of the already present customers.

That's exactly what Itachi decided to do. He moved like a ghost through the night, melting into the shadows as he closed in on the first bar.

First, he had to pick a target. Someone without companions. It was best if it was a stoic or shy person. Someone who didn't seem the talkative type, definitely not one of the natives. Someone with similar height and build as himself would be ideal but wasn't a requirement.

If he did not find someone suitable, it was best to wait for another ship to arrive before entering town under a generic transformation.

That night, Itachi didn't find anyone. Not the next night either.

On the third day, a new ship finally arrived. It was time.


	10. Chapter 10

A few weeks had flown by and Itachi had already moved islands thrice and was about to do so again. Was already doing so, in fact. He had gotten a feel for how people generally acted around these parts and considered himself ready to move closer to an area with a stronger Marine presence.

Baterilla.

That was his destination. Rumours were running wild of the recent spike of Marine activity there. All kinds of assumptions were made, really. A famous pirate was found hiding there, the pirate king had acted weird there, the people there were actually zebras in disguise.

Nobody was quite sure just what had caught the attention of the Marines exactly, so Itachi would just have to find out himself.

Which was why he was currently working as hired help on a merchant's vessel. With the heightened attention of the Marines on the place, it wasn't a good idea for him to pop out of nowhere, no matter how good his skills in Illusions. He may or may not have done a bad job on purpose so he'd be kicked off the crew once the captain found a chance to get rid of him.

On another note, Kuromu was extra enthusiastic ever since she had tasted that sea king meat. Apparently, it hadn't even lasted an hour past the time she had unsealed it. Once she had run out, she had been quite distraught. She was now demanding he hunt another one soon every chance she got.

The glutton.

They were closing in on the harbour and the captain was starting to shout instructions, pulling him out of his thoughts.

He 'clumsily' tripped as he scurried around to follow his orders, 'accidentally' tearing the newly lowered sails in the process.

That seemed to have been the last straw.

With a curse that had even Itachi taken aback, the captain told him to simply stand in the corner, not to move and not to BREAK ANYTHING ELSE, OR I SWEAR TO GOD-.

Unseen, Itachi smirked.

"And stay off mah ship!", the furious captain shouted at him one last time as he threw his 'pay' in his face.

Speak about dramatic. And attention-grabbing. Not that he minded in this case. The few Marines that had watched the scene and were not so subtly laughing at him were just what he needed, really. The more witnesses the better.

'Distraught', Itachi sighed, collected his belongings from where they had fallen on the floor during the verbal smackdown, and aimlessly wandered into town.

If he subsequently slipped away and left a shadow clone in his place as he passed through a small alley, nobody noticed.

The clumsy sailor persona he had established would serve 2 purposes. 1) An alibi and a way to vanish completely in case he was caught snooping with a different appearance. 2) A non-suspicious persona to get talking to the natives, establish a base and gather information the Marines may not yet have gotten ahold of due to the fear of the population.

While his first clone busied itself by further establishing his persona and presence, Itachi himself made a few more of them, who all promptly concealed themselves in inconspicuous locations and started observing the Marines and their ships. If he could overhear their conversations to find out what they were looking for, that'd be best. If not, he'd have to sneak onboard and snoop for documents or put one of the higher-ranking ones under an Illusion to find out.

Itachi leaned more towards sneaking inside or a combination of the above. That way he'd gain an initial impression of the inner workings of their ships, a general layout should he need it in the future and an understanding of any unexpected security measures he could reference later.

He himself would explore and memorize the town and nearby surroundings.

By the end of the day, all Itachi had found out was that the Marines were looking for and investigating any pregnant women in the area. It made the town nervous and defensive, which meant it was the talk of town and easy to overhear. Nobody knew the reason why and 3 of those women had already vanished. Everyone knew who had taken them, even if they officially knew nothing.

The strained atmosphere had also made it harder for his persona to be accepted. People eyed him with distrust and sometimes even stopped their conversations when he passed by.

The Marines' mode of operation was truly foolish, from Itachi's point of view. Creating that kind of atmosphere would just lead to a defensive attitude. They'd find it harder to get the information they wanted and would antagonize the population in the process.

Then again, from what Mihawk knew they and their superior government never did care overly about the happiness of their subjects so this shouldn't have exasperated him as much as it had.

When night finally fell, the ninja created a clone whose task was to infiltrate the vessel. From the movements of the Marines during the day he had pinpointed that their leading officer was located in the furthest ship from the shore. Thus, that was the logical destination.

From what he knew, technology here was not as advanced as to include automated security systems except for traps. Thus the main things he had to watch for were those alongside patrols and, most worryingly were Den Den Mushis. Apparently, not only could they be used to transmit voice and sound, but Mihawk had also known about special ones that were used for surveillance and image transmission purposes. Itachi had no idea if Illusions worked properly on the animals.

There was no way for him to completely ensure none of the special little snails saw him, their sizes and possible locations too many to possibly evade.

Thus, he had decided to 'borrow' a spare uniform from an unfortunate Marine he had ambushed and conceal the clone's appearance behind the clothing as much as possible. That also meant upholding the Genjutsu over its features would be easier for the clone since it didn't need to conceal any clothing.

The most important part of impersonation was confidence. It had to move like it knew where it was going, what it was doing and most of all, being relaxed and showing with body language that it was sure it wasn't doing anything it shouldn't be.

At the same time, the Itachi clone minimized its presence and cast his fangirl deflection jutsu one more time. Yes, he had _actually_ named it that.

All the clone really had to do to find the office of the commanding officer was inconspicuously follow another Marine on their way to report.

Purposefully not walking too fast along the jetty towards its target, it sighed loudly to catch the attention of the Marine walking in front of it before putting up a defeated, tired expression.

"Found another one?", it started hitting up a conversation as they walked.

"Yea, it's incredible just how many of them managed to get knocked up in that time period, aint it?"

"Indeed…"

The clone and its new companion walked out of earshot.

Honestly, Itachi would have preferred not to use a clone for the infiltration. Yet it minimized the risks involved since the clone didn't have to worry about getting out. It could simply dispel once it was done, maybe use going to the loo as an excuse to vanish.

Instead, Itachi hauled the unfortunate unconscious Marine up over his shoulder and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. The next morning the poor guy would wake up with the worst hangover of his life, naked in a ditch outside a local bar with no memories of most of the previous day to be sharply reprimanded by his superior.

His work done, Itachi switched back into the clothes worn by his alibi persona and went to seek out the 'public' clone to take its place.

It was walking around the local market currently, asking around for a job and getting some groceries with his meager pay from his days on the merchant ship.

Itachi promptly used another of the basic ninja techniques, the Body Replacement, to switch places with the clone and promptly dispelled it.

A familiar rush of memories assaulted his mind. He quickly sorted through the memories of his clone. It had managed to secure a cheap inn room for a few days and had paid upfront, where it had spent a few hours 'resting' before heading outside, where Itachi had encountered it.

During the few seconds it had taken to sort through the memories, Itachi had stared 'unsurely' at the owner of the next stall as if contemplating if he should speak to the man.

He shook his head, seemingly dismissing the idea before pausing and 'changing his mind'.

"Sir? Hello, nice to meet you."

"Hello, lad. What'll it be?"

"Oh, uhm, 500g of this meat here, please.", Itachi randomly pointed at the cheapest one.

"Sure thing. It's a bit tough so you'll need to keep that in mind when preparing it, yea?"

"Thank you", he shyly answered, before fidgeting in embarrassment. "Uhm, you see, sir, I was just kind of… fired, so uhm I was wondering… wouldyouhappentoknowanywhereIcouldfindsomeworkplease?"

Yea, this kind of persona wasn't the best idea he ever had… it fit though, and if he was 'shy' he could get away with not speaking much.

The stall owner blinked owlishly before breaking out in boisterous laughter.

"Aaaah, I heard there was a bit of a scene at the port earlier, so that was you, was it?"

Itachi blushed brightly and quickly hid his head in his hands, groaning loudly.

That just made the old man guffaw louder. Nice. His shoulders had relaxed, and he didn't seem to be wary of the stranger in front of him anymore. Success! Even if the act was embarrassing.

"Sorry, lad, I haven't had a good laugh like that in a while."

"Uh, no… it's alright", he assured the man, "… It was kind of funny, huh… in a pathetic way", Itachi muttered self-deprecatingly, barely loud enough for the old owner to hear.

The amusement that had been written all over his face now made way for a little pity, before changing to a thoughtful expression as he over Itachi critically.

"You know, as a reward for making this old man laugh, how about I make you a deal."

Itachi perked up visibly.

"You see, after my sister's death, my niece has been living all alone in that house of hers. I can hardly find the time to visit and she's starting to isolate herself there. I'm starting to worry. I've been meaning to go out looking for someone to help her out around the house and garden. It's not much and I can't pay well, but I can provide room and board, even if she doesn't. You can even work full-time someplace else, the work that needs doing won't take much out of your day."

Itachi was bewildered. This old man would trust a random stranger alone with his niece who had been isolating herself at home… He allowed the expression to show on his face.

The old man nodded as if to confirm his decision once more before throwing a sharp gaze Itachi's way.

"I can tell you're not a bad lad, your face is too honest. I trust my own judgment. Plus, don't think I won't check in on you!"

Itachi's kips twitched and he sheepishly scratched his cheek.

"I'm that obvious, huh", he said.

"Just a little. But that's why I even considered offering, lad. Plus, all the folks around these parts already have jobs and like I said, I can't offer much pay."

So, he was low-key being taken advantage of. Yet, with how upfront the man was being about it Itachi couldn't bring himself to mind.

"Then, I'll agree. This already helps me out a lot. Thank you!"

"Don't sweat it, lad. Now, how about you help me out at the stand for the next hour or so? It'll get dark soon, then I can close up and show you to her place, yea?"

"Of course, that sounds great. Uhm, what would you like me to do?"

"Let's see, how about changing the …"

Thus, for the next hour, Itachi was 'taught' about the different kinds of meats, customer service, and how to haggle. He pretended not to be very successful at the last two, also sprinkling in the odd stumble or clumsy moment. He couldn't bring himself to actually damage anything though.

He also learned a bit about the man himself. Apparently, he was a butcher, widowed 3 years ago, no children or grandchildren still around. He had opened a shop with his wife but couldn't maintain it by himself and was now supporting himself through the stall alone. He had a good reputation; his good word alone was enough to make the locals' wariness concerning Itachi disappear completely.

This man… had truly been a lucky find.

The old man stretched as they finished packing up for the day.

"Nice. Now, help me carry this home and we can be on our way.", he instructed.

Itachi nodded his agreement and easily lifted the boxes in question over his shoulders. Even during his short stint as a sailor, he'd had to carry a lot heavier items around the whole ship.

"Hoo? You're quite strong even if you don't look it, eh?"

"Eh? Well, I was a sailor, you know…", Itachi trailed off.

"Hahaha, well that's true. Despite the fact you're a bit clumsy, you work hard, lad. I don't think I'll regret asking you for help."

The man's house wasn't too far away from the market. They managed to reach it in 15 minutes.

"Just put it down in here, I'll put it away properly later."

Silently, Itachi did so.

"Oh, right, I completely forgot. My name's Ross, lad. What's yours?"

"Oh god, I'm so sorry. How impolite of me.", Itachi stammered, flustered. "I'm Coma"

"Well then, Coma, let's go meet my niece, eh?"

"Yes!", he said enthusiastically.

Maybe he would have to talk more than he'd wanted after all.

Ross led him out of the house and soon out of the town itself, chatting at him all the way. Apparently, his niece wasn't simply the in-her-house-and-not-leaving-much kind of isolated, but the _really_ isolated kind of isolated. As in not even living inside or coming into town isolated. The 22-year-old was, according to the complaints of the old man, studying _yet another_ branch of medicine and had cited those studies as her reason for wanting peace and quiet while she slaved over the material.

Huh. Definitely not a stupid woman then.

Itachi was getting kind of curious now.

They had long since left the town behind and had nearly reached a small forested area when the man took a left and led them down a small, inconspicuous path towards the ocean. And there it was, surrounded by palm trees and hugged between the sides of a cliff. The small 2-story house looked picturesque and peaceful. It was painted a light orange, bright and cheerful but not obnoxious in the same style of architecture as the other houses of the town, yet the atmosphere it gave off was very different. Homey and bright, despite the encroaching darkness.

Itachi stopped and widened his eyes in awe.

"It's beautiful", he whispered. Yea, this persona was getting old more and more quickly.

Ross just grinned and gestured him to continue. The two walked up to the front door and, without knocking, the old man went in. Itachi, unsure and uncomfortable, awkwardly waited by the door instead.

"Oy, Rouge? You there?", he heard Ross call on the inside, quickly followed by the opening of a door and a woman's reply.

"Uncle, is that you? Is something wrong?"

"Rouge! There you are! Does something have to be wrong for me to come see my favourite niece?"

A huffed laugh was the answer.

"Of course not, I just figured since you rarely disturb me when I study something was probably up."

The old man grumbled something unintelligible, apparently offended.

"Actually, I did come here for a reason today. You know how I said I'd look for someone to help you out around here if you needed it since I can't come over a lot…"

"Uncle, don't tell me… I thought I said that I was going to be alright?"

"Yes, well, I worry…"

He could hear her sigh at that.

"I know, uncle. Thank you., I appreciate the thought. I really will be fine on my own though."

"But Rouge, I already brought him here, can't you at least meet the guy? He is seriously shy, I'm sure he won't disturb your studying."

"You brought him here!?"

Yea, he'd be shocked at that as well. He hadn't known she didn't even want the help. A great start, that was.

He positioned himself in a way as if he was admiring the view, totally lost in thought.

Any second now…

Yup, there it was, the door opened and Ross stepped out, followed by a tall woman. Itachi acted like he didn't notice and chose to observe her out of the corner of his eyes instead. She was slightly taller than himself but not by much. Her long wavy hair gently hugged her slender figure. She was wearing a white summer dress and had a red exotic flower tucked behind her left ear.

Her bangs were parted in the middle and framed her kind but strong reddish-brown eyes that were surrounded by freckles. Her expression was complicated when she observed him.

"Oy, Coma"

Itachi pretended to jump in surprise and quickly turned towards the older man, right hand placed over his chest in a gesture as if to calm his racing heart.

"Easy there, lad.", Ross couldn't keep the amusement out of his voice.

"Coma, meet my niece, Rouge. Rouge, this is the lad I told you about, Coma."

"H-hello", Itachi greeted awkwardly, waving shyly.

"Good evening. I'm Portgas D Rouge, it's very nice to meet you, Coma."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go. This chapter should give you a good idea as to where in the One Piece timeline we are.  
> AS for the naruto timeline... well, Itachi is 16 and Orochimaru is still with the Akatsuki. I hope you're not lost anymore!


	11. Chapter 11

"Nice to meet you, Miss Portgas", Itachi greeted with a polite bow.

"Please, do call me Rouge. Why don't you come in?"

"Ah, yes, okay.", he fidgeted nervously.

"I'll leave you to it then", Ross said joyfully, waving his goodbyes, "Gotta put away those boxes. Let me know your decision tomorrow, yea?"

Itachi stared at the already retreating back of the old man, eyes wide and panicked. His performance warranted some sort of price, he was sure. He swore he was never going to picking a persona like this again in his life.

An amused huff made him avert his eyes back to the woman who was patiently waiting for him, laughter dancing in her eyes.

"He didn't force you into this, did he?", she asked as she gestured him to follow her inside.

"Ah, uhm… no, that is…" he haltingly told her of his 'plight'.

By the time he was done, they were sitting in a small dining area, a cup of water each in front of them.

The inside of the house was just as homey, inviting, and comfortably furnished as the outside suggested. A lot of wood, flowers, and warmly painted walls. The occasional sketch or painting hung on the wall, next to what he assumed were family pictures. The most prevalent items were books, however. He could spy at least 19 from where he was sitting alone, most without a label on the outside. Those that did have any were medical texts of various specializations.

When he had finished his explanation Rouge hummed quietly in thought.

He fussed nervously with the cup in front of him.

"Um, Miss P-, I mean Rouge… if, if you don't need or want any help then I don't want to force myself on you either… I mean, I can find another job somewhere if I'm a bother… probably."

Rouge's gaze softened visibly as he spoke.

Well, how could she reject him now? This was so unfair! Those kind of puppy eyes should be illegal, seriously!

Rouge fought with herself for a few more long moments, her logic warring with her heart, before she sighed in defeat.

"How about this? You can stay and help me out until you find another job in town, yes? We'll talk about it again then."

She just hoped he'd find one soon. Leaving the adorable man homeless really didn't sit well with her but given her… situation it genuinely wasn't a good idea to stay in prolonged contact with a stranger. She hadn't even entrusted her secret to her own uncle, for god's sake! She wasn't going to do so with an unknown, no matter how adorable he was.

Itachi sighed in obvious relief and smiled shyly but eagerly at the woman.

"Great! That's… geat. Then, when should I start?"

"Well, how about tomorrow? You didn't bring anything, so I assume you got a room in town already, right? How about you sleep there for today and come here with your luggage tomorrow? I'll ready your room in the morning."

Itachi nodded in acceptance, a cheerful grin on his face.

"Hm, I actually need to get some things in town anyways. How about I write you a list and you bring them with you when you come?"

"Sure."

"Perfect"

Maybe having the man around wouldn't be all that bad. She could avoid going into town for a lot longer this way.

She stood up and opened a drawer, getting out a fountain pen and a sheet of paper to write out her purchase requests, along with some directions just in case her new helper didn't know where to get something.

She handed the list along with the approximate amount needed for the supplies to the former sailor and escorted him outside.

Really, she hoped her own impression and her uncle's judgment of the man were correct. Otherwise she could be in deep trouble.

Looking at the shy smile on the man's face though, she couldn't quite bring herself to doubt him.

Itachi on the other hand didn't know how to feel about this. The location of his new employment was, quite frankly, terrible for his purposes. He was so far out of town it'd be considered strange when he did show up there unless he actually did get another job.

Then again, the excuse of looking for a job was a good enough one to be seen loitering around town any hour of the day in itself. One couldn't have everything.

He sighed and quickened his pace once he was out of sight of the house. He didn't even take a fifth of the time it took to get here until he reached the questionable safety of his inn room. He had already canceled his booking for the next few days and was returned the proper amount of Belly. He was required to move out before 9 am, not that he planned to still even be in town by then.

He quickly packed the few things his clone had taken out of his luggage away again and hopped into the shower. He only had 2 more clean sets of clothing. He'd have to do the laundry tomorrow. It didn't take long for him to fall into a light doze after that, the closest he'd come to a good night's sleep unless he knew one of his companions was on lookout.

Just past 3 in the morning, he was woken up by a shadow clone popping out of existence. More specifically by the flood of scenes and thoughts that always resulted in said clones dispelling. It was the one who had infiltrated the ship. It had completed its mission.

Itachi closed his eyes and went over the events. There had only been a minor delay since he had been ordered to clean the mess someone left in the dining hall during dinner. Apart from that his self-imposed mission had been executed flawlessly. He had been able to spot a surveillance Den Den Mushi before entering its field of vision, conveniently confirming that Genjutsu did seem to affect the animals. To the degree that it did turn to where the clone wanted it to. To confirm what it projected when faced with a visual Genjutsu though would require further, more careful testing.

The commanding officer was, apparently a Marine Captain. You wouldn't be able to tell he was in charge of even a chicken coop from the state of his office though. It was a fucking mess. Like seriously, he had seen Inuzuka kennels that were more orderly than that room and those dogs were a nightmare to keep in any way neat.

Papers were strewn everywhere, folders and documents stuffed haphazardly into overflowing cabinets and drawers. Any type of filing system that may have once existed had long since been forgotten. It looked like a whirlwind had passed through, ripping everything out of its place, then someone had gathered it all up in makeshift piles only for the whirlwind to come back and do it _again_.

Yea, Itachi could feel the faint aftereffects of the headache his clone had felt at the task before it.

It had, surprisingly not taken long for the purpose of this whole campaign to become apparent. His clone had decided to go through every last piece of paper in that pigsty regardless. You never knew when and where useful information would show itself after all.

He hadn't found anything overtly useful to his goal but he _did_ find out where all those missing pregnant women had been taken.

Itachi smirked.

A few things were starting to come together in his mind. If what he assumed was correct, then the team may soon be 1 step closer to a possible answer. Of course, it could just be a dead-end as well. He would worry about that later though.

First, he had to find that woman… before the Marines could. If she even existed, that was.

Itachi stood up. It was a little earlier than when he usually woke, so he spent some time doing basic exercises that were suitable to perform in a small room like this, being more thorough than usual. He left the inn just as the first stall on the market opened at 5:30 am, waving shyly at the bleary-eyed proprietor as he handed him his key.

He seriously couldn't wait for his persona to 'get used to' the new place and stop being so nervous. Being a perfectionist in infiltration wasn't really all that it was caked up to be. Truly.

During his recent investigation, when the chances of his clone being accidentally destroyed were low, Itachi had taken to leave one of them in charge and trained himself instead. He had to at least make sure his skills, as well as his body's condition, didn't degrade after all.

Today, he decided against such an action. He himself hadn't been socializing with people truly in person for a long time. The interaction yesterday had reminded him of that fact. Leaving his clones to do so was indeed most efficient but every now and again Itachi felt like he had to do it himself or he'd lose something, something important. Something that a certain bastard believed a good shinobi shouldn't have in the first place. The bastard who had orchestrated the whole situation that still made Itachi have nightmares, the one who had purposely thwarted all their plans and measures to prevent just that kind of tragedy.

All for no other reason than paranoia.

Itachi would be damned if he let himself lose his humanity, his emotions. Even if his nature was stoic and introverted, even if he could do what must be done, he would never fully lose them.

He would never again fall into one of the old ninja's traps. It had cost him way too much last time. He did not want to imagine the prize should it happen again. It may not be one Itachi would be able to pay.

That, he admitted to himself, was also the reason he had allowed himself to grow closer to his current teammates, especially Kisame. At first, he had been strongly against such a thing, after all the whole Akatsuki only consisted of criminals who had abandoned their duty to their homes or had been forced out as criminals.

But after a while in their company, Itachi had been forced to rethink his stance. He had gotten to know their stories and their reasoning, the motivations behind it all. He had been surprised. Well, all that had only started after he had been tasked with recruiting Deidara.

The ninja had been content with his life before the Akatsuki barged in, serving his home faithfully, even if he didn't agree with all their leaders asked of him. Until Itachi came and forcefully recruited him into the organisation, after humiliating the blonde in a duel.

He still felt seriously guilty about that, orders or no.

It had all snowballed from there. Finding out his sadistic, cruel partner whom he had secretly despised was in fact just a lonely outcast who had been vilified after executing a traitor to his own home had been the event that sealed the deal for Itachi.

He stopped feeling sorry for himself after that and slowly, ever so slowly, started opening up to them.

Don't get him wrong, he still hated what he had been forced to do with a passion, hated himself for not realizing, not preventing everything. He also still held on to his plan to have his brother be the one to kill him, to redeem their family's reputation, and finally conclude the whole messed up situation.

It may be selfish, it may be cruel, but Itachi had already set foot on this path. He didn't not think he could turn back even if he had wanted to.

Itachi had reached the market while thusly contemplating his life choices. The buzz of the early morning shoppers made him come out of his blank-eyed state.

He smiled at a motherly looking woman selling various kinds of seed and pointedly took out his shopping list before unsurely smiling at her and approaching.

"Um, excuse me? You wouldn't happen to be Madam Rosalyn, would you?"

"Good morning, young man. You've found the right place! What can I help you with today?"

"Oh thank god, I thought I got lost again…", he smiled sheepishly, "Um, I need some potato, passion fruit, tomato, and cucumber seeds, 100g of each. Also…"

The list continued for a while. The woman's smile got brighter and brighter the more seeds he listed, obviously happy with such a large sale, if a bit puzzled.

"That's quite a collection you need there", she commented leadingly, trying not to sound nosy as she wrapped up the last of it.

"Ah, you see, I was hired as somewhat of a gofer starting today. I think my employer may want me to ready and cultivate a small field for their family."

He randomly threw an assumption out to satisfy the obviously gossip-hungry lady. It wouldn't do to alienate her, the local gossip network could be an invaluable source of information… sometimes. Ok, not that often, but even a rare chance was a chance.

"Oh my, were you the young man who was kicked off that merchant ship yesterday? You poor dear. I'm happy you found some new work so soon!"

'Called it', Itachi wryly thought. She sounded happy with the piece of news she managed to squirrel out of him. He deeply blushed at her question, demonstratively lowering his head and fidgeting with his bag.

"Uh… yea", he muttered, ashamed.

"Oh, don't worry, dear.", Madam Rosalyn hurried to assure him, "These things happen to the best of us. Why just the other day…!"

Itachi marvelled at how little effort he had to put into making the woman talk. An embarrassed look here, hunched shoulders there and ding! We have a variable fountain of information, bubbling forth without stop.

Well, maybe it was a little unfair, measuring normal people like her up to ninja standards but still, in the nations even civilians knew not to be so open when pregnant women were abducted from town by a policing force they were supposed to be able to trust.

Putting it like that really highlighted how messed up this situation was all over again.

After a good 20 minutes of chatter that gave Itachi more information on who slept with who when and how often than he ever wanted to know, as well as led him to find out about the probable pregnancy of 3 women that had yet to be taken.

Well, that was a good start on that front. He hoped the next few stall owners or sales assistants would be just as helpful.

Itachi took a whole 3 hours to finish his errands. He didn't manage to squirrel out any other candidates but did manage to overtly confirm the info he had on the ones he had found out about earlier. The town population still felt very cautious of him, understandably. It would be strange if they weren't, after all, while a lot of them liked to gossip, most knew when and in front of whom to keep their mouths firmly closed.

Itachi would honestly feel sorry for the poor woman that was being looked for if they didn't. He wondered how long that would last. He didn't doubt that if enough women got taken, they would inevitably start turning against each other at one point.

He had to make sure to find her before that happened. The sooner, the better. He wasn't familiar with the true mentality of the population but from what he could see his most optimistic estimate put the time that'd take at 2 months, less if anyone with any kind of influence was affected.

While Itachi did pride himself on his information gathering skills, there was no guarantee he would manage. If she was secretive enough, he may well never find out at all. He would adore the challenge in equal amounts to how much he hated it in this case.

He allowed a determined smirk to cross his face as he left the town for his persona's employer's home.

He would not allow himself to fail.

Itachi let the rake sink into the now soft soil one last time before heaving the tool across his shoulders with a sigh.

His muscles felt comfortably relaxed from the now-familiar farm work.

He rolled his shoulders experimentally and secured the frayed straw hat that served as a small cover from the sun burning down onto him back into place. The breeze was strong today. He looked up to scan the sky. There was not a cloud in sight.

Baterilla was truly located on a tropical island. The jungle-like forest and the palm trees dotting the drier areas as well as the beach were an indication, of course, but there was no telling how the vegetation would behave outside the Nations. It was good to know his knowledge on the matter still seemed to apply.

Luckily for him, his stamina wasn't weak enough for him to collapse even in harsher conditions.

He reflected on the last month he had spent on the island.

He knew the whole land by now and had truly settled in, the natives accepted him in their midst, and his persona fit right in now. He had allowed the shyness to fade, making it a quietly introverted, but helpful, mask instead.

He felt way more comfortable with that, since it was closer to his true personality.

He was still careful to never let the darker side surface though, not while he felt anyone closeby. He still kept up with his training, had increased it in fact. His body felt in better condition than it had in years, and that was saying something, coming from a 16-year-old.

He sounded like an old man.

"Good work", the kind voice of Rouge pulled him out of his contemplation.

He turned his head at the sound, smiling at the sight of his employer.

They had become kind-of-friends during the time he had spent here. She was a gentle and kind woman who enjoyed intelligent discussions despite her early reluctance of company and he, well, he was bored, and frankly, her intelligence intrigued him.

She held out a bottle of water to him, a small basket in her other hand. He took it with a smile and an appreciative nod.

"I thought you may get hungry soon", she said in way of explanation, "I'm surprised you got done so quickly. I did ask you to develop a whole field after all, small as it is."

Over the last month, Itachi had been tasked with siting small plots of farmland, plant the various seed he had bought, and tend to said plants. Rouge had picked a suitable place for the project that was a small ways away from her house and well protected from the sea breeze and most of the sand it carried. It ended up being enough small plots close together to make up a decently sized field.

It wasn't hard work but it took a long time so Itachi really didn't have much time to look for work in town for his persona. It was exasperating, having that venue of information gathering closed to him but there really wasn't much he could do about it, since she paid him for the extra time he had to spend, differently from their original agreement.

He found he really couldn't be angry at the woman though. She didn't know about his intentions and thought she was helping him instead. He discovered her to truly be as kind and goodhearted as their first meeting suggested.

"Thank you", he said with a smile. He wouldn't insult her efforts by saying she shouldn't have. Instead he just thanked her and chose to show his appreciation by enjoying her efforts and paying her back in kind.

They walked over to the small alcove in a cliff Itachi had stored his things at, surrounded by some palm trees, chatting all the while.

Itachi took out a large sheet he had packed for the day and spread it out on the ground in the shade.

"Then, let's eat here together for the day. The weather is nice and you haven't been getting much sun lately", he decided.

Rouge looked surprised for a moment, having already readied herself to head back home. She did pack a little much for him to eat alone though so she didn't argue and sat down instead, her loose summer dress spreading out around her.

She smiled up at him.

"You're right. I did become a bit of a cave dweller, didn't I?"

She felt touched at her friend and employee's care for her. She had gotten to know the man over the last month and found herself enjoying his company more and more. While this was exactly what she had feared would happen – getting attached and not being able to ask him to leave… she couldn't exactly blame her new friend for that.

He was really intelligent, could keep up with her trains of thought and wasn't adverse to keeping her company and discussing medical problems. While he didn't have a doctor's knowledge in the field like her, he had a solid foundation in first aid and offered a refreshing perspective that made it truly engaging to talk to him.

Itachi settled down next to her, crossing his legs and pulling off the straw hat.

"You have, indeed. If you become any paler your skill will be translucent", he said, only half-jokingly.

She was indeed really pale, if not slightly sickly since he had first come to live with her. He was actually starting to worry. She had been throwing up increasingly regularly in the mornings. She had tried to keep it quiet but his hearing was too sharp for him not to hear her waking up and nearly falling over herself on her way to the bathroom.

At first, he had just ignored it, figuring the woman had caught a stomach bug. She was a doctor herself so she'd best know when to go to a professional.

Yet, it hadn't gotten worse or better and the woman made no move to get any help. This in turn lead to a certain suspicion taking root in Itachi's mind.

For now, he'd simply keep watching and offer his help should she need it.

Rouge's lips twitched and she pouted in mock-offense.

"Hmpf, if you're gonna be like that maybe I should eat some more, yea, I think I'll just have to keep all this to myself", she teased as she hugged the basket close to her stomach.

In obviously fake fear Itachi put his hands up in surrender.

"Please have mercy", he said in a monotonous voice, obviously not taking her seriously.

She huffed.

"You're terrible."

Itachi merely lifted his brows.

Rouge turned away from him demonstratively but still shoved the basket in his general direction, after taking out a few fruits to bite into viciously.

He snorted in amusement, unable to help himself.

She had made a simple dish of pasta with vegetables today and a salad. It was still warm and smelled delicious when he pulled it out of the basket. Several fruits were still inside, probably for dessert or a snack.

A real smile spread across his face at the sight. Before he had come here, he had always been the one to cook for everyone. Despite the fact he could honestly say his own dishes tasted better than what the woman cooked up – not that he'd ever say it, he did like his head where it was- it was still nice not having to cook himself for a while. Plus, he could tell how much effort she put into it.

He appreciated it.

"Thanks for the meal", he said quietly, before digging in with gusto.

Rouge smiled despite herself at the sight.

Yea, she really couldn't act mad anymore.

Rouge coughed as she raised her head. She literally felt like she was going to die.

Another wave of nausea hit her, causing her to quickly bow over the toilet bowl once more. She retched, throwing up the last vestiges of the previous night's dinner.

"Ugh", she moaned pitifully.

She felt like it was getting worse.

She thought the signs would mellow out after some time, not get worse. If this continued… she may have to risk getting a checkup somewhere.

The mere idea and the anxiety coming with it were enough to trigger yet another wave.

In that moment, she really, really wanted to curse into that man's face for daring to do this to her. Yet, she cursed herself even more. After all, she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it either.

Itachi was watching her in silent contemplation.

He felt more and more like his suspicion was likely correct. The question was just… what, if anything, to do about it, and how.

He watched her nearly choke as the next wave of nausea hit and made his decision. If he was wrong, he'd just have to deal with it then. Later, he would look back on his impulsiveness at that moment and come close to comprehend just why some people thought a ninja had no business being emotional.

Rouge didn't notice his presence until he stood directly beside her, gently placing a hand on her nightgown covered shoulder in support.

She jerked in surprise and whipped her head around to face him, a slightly panicked expression on her face.

Perhaps he should've said something before touching her suddenly, he admitted to himself as the sudden motion visibly set off another wave of nausea.

Instead of commenting, he carefully gathered up the few curls of hair that had escaped over her shoulders and held her hair back, rubbing soothing circles on her back all the while.

It took Rouge another 20 minutes before she felt her stomach was quiet enough to attempt getting up.

She shifted experimentally to see if the nausea would return. When it didn't, she heaved a sigh of relief. She looked up in surprise when the warm hand on her back disappeared, searching for the figure of her friend.

She soon spotted him at the sink, a glass of water in hand.

He handed it to her with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Thank you", she said hoarsely, before using part of the offered water to swirl in her mouth and get the bad aftertaste out. She drank the rest in small sips. She felt truly grateful to the man. His steadying presence and warm hand on her back had made the whole thing way more bearable.

He simply nodded in silence, cleaning up after the whole episode without a word, still no emotions showing on his face.

Rouge ignored the bad feeling that was starting to make itself known and shakily got up.

Itachi, having finished up helped her back to her bed, where she sat down gratefully. She had never been affected by the nausea for this long.

Rouge opened her mouth to thank him again, but no sound escaped her at the penetrating look he leveled her with.

Her heart sunk.

"It's you, isn't it", he stated rather than asked, "The one they're looking for."


	12. Chapter 12

Itachi levelled an intimidating stare at Rouge, no trace of his persona left in his expression.

"The one the Marines are looking for is you", he stated, sure of his conclusion

Rouge swallowed down her reflexive denial as she saw the unfamiliar expression on her friend's face. It was scary, the fact she couldn't read any emotion on his face anymore. It left her feeling even more shaken than the fact he had discovered her secret, really.

"Yes", she answered quietly, tonelessly. She couldn't deny it. Not with how sure he was acting, knowing. She had messed up. Most likely, he had noticed her state and put everything together.

Itachi narrowed his eyes at her.

"You were his lover then. Roger's.", he added bluntly.

"Yes", she answered again, tears clouding her vision. She couldn't even pull up the energy to be shocked he somehow knew the Marines' true goal, too busy with her racing thoughts on how this was it, this was how everything would end. A cold hard lump was forming in her throat.

She couldn't help but sob. Someone had found out. It was over. He was no doubt disgusted with her now. With how callous she was, not turning herself in but watching all the while others were taken in her place, never to return.

She herself was disgusted after all. Even more so because she didn't regret it for a second.

Yet, he, he was a honest sailor. He would run to the Marines any second and they would take her away. Her baby... they would kill it. All she had done, the regret, the self-disgust, the distance she had put between herself and everyone else…

Most of all, her poor, innocent child would die, just because of her stupid bleeding heart. Because of her trusting nature. Because she couldn't say no to taking in the man that would soon become her friend because she couldn't bring herself to ask him to leave.

She hid her tears behind her hands, not daring to look at his face for fear of what she would find, for fear of continuing to look at the unfamiliar expression on his face. She was a coward.

She couldn't keep her body from shaking as she sobbed.

Suddenly, a warm hand landed on her head and she flinched in surprise once again.

Itachi sighed audibly.

When she looked up, his eyes were genuinely warm as he looked at her in fond exasperation.

"Calm down, Rouge. I won't tell anyone, I promise", he said reassuringly. He patted her head like he would a child's but it was strangely soothing, Rouge didn't mind the treatment at all.

He hadn't run off, hadn't reported her like he should... didn't he hate her? for putting the whole area in danger? For deceiving him, for not telling him?

"It's alright. I'm here, it'll be alright"

Itachi continuously murmured reassurances as she got her shock out of her system. This was one of the few times he couldn't mind having to talk so much.

Slowly, Rouge calmed down. Her face looked terrible. Her eyes were puffy, and she got hiccups from crying.

"Don't you hate me?", she asked, sounding awfully timid and hating herself for it. She had always been brave. Stubborn and brave. Where was that bravery now?

"Why would I hate you?", he countered with a raised eyebrow.

"Because of me... *hic* all those women...", tears gathered in Rouge's eyes once again as she admitted her sin out loud. Her selfishness had caused this.

Comprehension dawned on Itachi's face.

"The orders say they'll be let go once it's confirmed they don't carry his child. Apparently, there's a way to confirm if he was the sire only shortly before they're born. Don't feel guilty Rouge, nobody will die because of you"

Disbelief and hope warred on her face at his words. That… that was way too good to be true. That would mean they would all be safe; she wasn't responsible for any of their deaths then.

"How do you...", she involuntarily asked, hope and suspicion warring inside her now she had somewhat overcome the shock of the first confrontation. She even contemplated the possibility of him only trying to stall her here for reinforcements to arrive and take her away.

Itachi hesitated for a moment, silently cursing himself for not coming up with a good excuse.

"I snuck into their commander's office", he finally admitted. This probably wasn't the best solution but a part of him didn't really want to lie to her. This also meant she now had something on him, which could cement the fact he wouldn't just run off to sell her out.

She stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief, tears forgotten. He had actually had the audacity to…!

She truly got to know a new side of her friend today.

When the silence stretched a bit too long, he added a disgruntled "It was the most untidy pigsty of an office I've seen in my life"

Silence.

Itachi already assumed his tactic to calm her down had failed, before

"Pffft", Rouge broke into hysterical laughter. She was so relieved. It seemed her friend wasn't completely gone after all. This situation was so ridiculous, she just couldn't help herself. Here she was, half devastated half confused and cursing her messed up pregnancy hormones, yet a single sentence was all it took for her to snap out of it.

Itachi quirked his lips in satisfaction.

He watched her giggle to herself for a while, calling him ridiculous in between fits of laughter.

"Rouge", he was regretful to have to interrupt her now, but the sooner they talked about this the better. They couldn't just ignore the fact he now knew for certain, even if he had bluffed her into admitting it.

The woman heard the switch in his tone and soon stopped giggling

"Haa.-*hic*... Coma? *hic*"

In all the excitement, her hiccups had gotten worse, it seemed. Wordlessly, he fetched her another glass of water, which she took with a thankful nod and a blush. Pregnancy really was a curse when her reputation as a strong self-reliant woman was concerned.

"I may have a solution.", he started. Seeing her about to interrupt, he raised his hand in a gesture to wait.

"I need to know something first though."

He fixed her with a serious look before she nodded, cautious.

"Did you know his crew?"

"Roger's?"

He nodded.

"Why?" If he couldn't tell her, she may not answer. She really didn't want to expose the companions of the man she had loved to possible danger, despite the man's many faults. If he really forced her to, to protect her baby, she would… she just hoped it didn't have to come to that.

It took a moment for the Uchiha to decide on what to answer.

"I'm searching for something. They may know where it is."

She raised her brows at that. She hadn't taken her friend to be one of the ones after treasure but... she thought back to the unfamiliar expression on his face earlier... she apparently didn't know him quite as well as she had assumed so who could tell.

"I met them all", she finally admitted. While she couldn't be sure, logically speaking, that he was telling the truth, her heart told her to keep trusting him. It hadn't led her astray yet and she didn't want to start doubting it now, not when he could possibly keep her unborn child safe. 

Itachi smiled in satisfaction. Good.

"In that case, I have a proposition for you."

She fixed her attention on his face. If he could really help her, there really wasn't anything she wasn't willing to do.

"Hn, this may take a while. For now, how about you clean yourself up a bit. I'll go make us some breakfast. Don't worry, I won't run off... Is there anything you'd like?"

Rouge blinked, completely thrown for a loop for a second. Then her gaze travelled down to her ruffled nightgown and she groaned in realization.

Some of her puke had gotten on there earlier and had now started drying into the fabric. She probably looked a right mess, honestly felt it too.

Given the serious nature of their upcoming talk, she had better get herself freshened up a little. She would also take the opportunity to correct her mindset and start processing the events of just now. She vaguely realized she was still half in shock from the earlier proceedings.

She threw a glance at Itachi out of the corner of her eyes. He probably realized it too. Most likely, that was the main reason he had decided to interrupt their talk.

She felt a pang of warmth in her chest at the thought he didn't take advantage of her state.

"Alright", she nodded, "Then, could you make me an omelette? With dried pickles and persimmons"

She blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

Itachi looked at her strangely at the weird combination but nodded in agreement regardless. He had heard pregnant women craved some weird things so who was he to judge.

He headed out of there and towards the kitchen to start preparing breakfast.

Rouge's thoughts only caught up to the present when she was nearly done getting ready, causing her to blush furiously at the request she had made, followed by a look of worry.

Did… her friend even know how to cook?

\-----------------------------

Rouge stared at Itachi accusingly.

She pointed at her plate with an angry look on her face.

"You… what is this?"

"It's an omelette", Itachi said dryly while sipping on a hot cup of tea.

"I can see that", she snapped, "but why is it so good!? It tastes better than my own cooking!"

Rouge pouted.

Itachi merely raised an eyebrow, unamused.

"Why didn't you tell me you could cook?", she asked next.

"You didn't ask", the infuriating man before her had the gall to say. She stabbed another piece of omelette viciously, imagining it was his eyeball instead.

Ok, maybe not, that was gross. But really, this tasted heavenly.

Rouge had to hold back a moan as she bit into the still slightly gooey goodness on her plate.

Itachi hid his satisfied smile behind the rip of his teacup.

Rouge was silently relieved at the easy, familiar banter that accompanied their breakfast. While she was indeed impatient to get to the point and ensure the validity of his proposal, the affirmation of their continued relationship was relieving. She hadn't truly realized how tense the uncertainty of their continued friendship had made her until she relaxed just then.

Sneaky bastard.

She did adore him for it though. He could've easily taken advantage of her overwhelmed state earlier, yet he hadn't. That had to mean something, right?

Seeing as she had finished eating, Itachi took the empty dishes and proceeded to clean up quickly. His employer simply stared through him blankly as he did, clearly lost in thought. With a final audible click that ripped Rouge out of her contemplation, he placed the last newly cleaned cup into the drying rack and joined Rouge at the table.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, wondering if she should thank him yet again. She probably should. Instead, she got straight to the point.

"You said you had a proposition?"

"Hn", he nodded.

"There is a technique in my homeland that female warriors use to temporarily put their pregnancy on hold. They use it when they find out about the pregnancy during times when it wouldn't be safe to birth a child. I can perform it for you but it'll only work safely for around a month. After that, the risk of complications grows stronger the longer it is used."

He started to explain the theory the Jutsu worked on to Rouge roughly, without giving away anything about his homeland but the fact they had females fighting there on a regular basis. The kunoichi sometimes got pregnant before or during missions and used this skill to put the foetus into stasis so it wouldn't hinder them or their objective. Sometimes, he recalled sadly, the whole objective was to return pregnant. Itachi hated what some of those missions did to perfectly good kunoichi, especially mentally.

As for why he knew the Jutsu, he had copied it accidentally from a kunoichi of an enemy village while on patrol. He really didn't want to think about what happened to her after that.

"That's really interesting. It doesn't really help much with the situation though?", Rouge asked, confused.

Itachi rolled his eyes at her. Just how did that not help…

"What I propose is this. I will use this technique on you for the safe period of a month, after which I'll pretend to be the father. We've been living alone here together for 2 months so it isn't strange for something to happen between us. A timeframe of 2 months in also isn't unusual for first symptoms like nausea to show. We visit a doctor for a check-up and when the Marines come poking around, we take the opportunity to clear your name. It's not difficult to falsify the blood test if they insist on it despite the fact the foetus won't be developed enough to have been sired in the time Roger was alive. Simple."

Rouge was staring at him like she'd never seen him before in her life, mouth slightly agape. He talked about this so dismissively, as if he'd done things like this all his life. Just how was that simple!?

Also, why would he take such big risks and sacrifice his reputation to help her? They were friends, yes, but this was honestly outside the scope of what normal friendship entailed. Rouge couldn't even analyze if the plan had a chance to work, she was that bewildered.

"But… why?"

"Why?"

"Why would you help me?"

"Besides the fact I consider you to be a friend", he started admonishingly, "There is actually something I'd like your help with in return."

"Right"

Right… She could work with that, probably. Since he considered her a friend, he shouldn't be expecting her to do anything impossible. In fact, she was a bit relieved. This likely meant he wasn't Cipher Pol or otherwise working for the government... she wouldn't let her guard down completely until she was completely sure though. She would have to think of some contingencies just in case. 

"What is it?"

"Help me find one of his old crewmates. Join my team and help me find what I'm looking for."

\-------------------------

**Intermission: The revelation**

Or alternatively: How Itachi got interested in Gol D Roger and how Mihawk had a mental breakdown

"This man", Itachi pointed at a recent article on the pirate king's execution. Mihawk himself had taken part in the whole ordeal. He hadn't been impressed.

"He sailed around most of the world, yes?"

Mihawk nodded.

"Then, he is the most likely to have found something. Maybe he even found the Nations"

"Yes, but... he's dead. I watched his execution myself", Mihawk reminded in resignation. He had also thought to seek out the late pirate king to ask about his ancestral home but hadn't been able to meet the man in time before his demise.

"What happened to his crew?"

Stunned, Mihawk could only stare at the ninja.

"His... crew..."

"Hn, they'd have been there with him."

His CREW! Fuck him, Mihawk had never considered that. No news ever talked about the fate of Roger's crew! If they got annihilated or executed the Marines would no doubt have bragged about it. Their silence could only mean one thing...

The crew was still at large.

The thought of how or why Roger was captured without his crew made Mihawk curious, but he shoved it to the back of his mind for the more important fact that they finally had a real clue!

On another note, Mihawk was surprisingly enthusiastic in his studies afterwards. He had been disappointed in himself for not having realized a fact Itachi had pointed out after only having spent days looking into it.

The goddamn crew… right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys!   
> I hope Rouge's reaction is believable. Pregnancy hormones can make women cry over the weirdest stuff... like the fact the neighbors dog barked at them... or a pea fell off their fork or ... yea, you get the point.  
> So, the fact that she isn't quite herself or thinking as straight/quickly as usual is because of that.   
> Hope you enjoyed the update and stay healthy and safe!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone! Here we are, another new project despite the fact I struggle even updating my older work... I may not be savable anymore. This plot bunny just wouldn't leave me alone though, so I had no choice but to write it out to clear my head, alright?
> 
> May the enjoyment you hopefully get out of my shenanigans lead you to forgive me.


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